Phoenix Hospitality, Resorts and Retail

Jennifer Stein is the Director of the Economic Development Services Department. Her primary focus is leading a team of experts who specialize in business attraction and development, business retention and expansion. Stein brings more than 25 years of experience in public and private sector communications, marketing, strategic planning, management, and community relations to her new economic development role in the City of Peoria. As the communications director for eight years in Peoria, she oversaw the award-winning public affairs, marketing, advertising, and tourism efforts and attracted restaurant and hospitality uses to the city. Prior to Peoria, Stein worked for the City of Glendale, spearheading the 2008 Super Bowl media efforts, marketing the annual Fiesta Bowl and BCS Championship games, building business and community partnerships in Westgate, and securing record-breaking media coverage. In addition, Stein was a news producer for KTVK-TV Arizona’s Family and a senior account executive for one of the top public relations firms in the Southwest, HMA Public Relations. Stein has a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from Northern Arizona University and she is a member of the International City/County Management Association and Arizona Association for Economic Development.

Mr. Tegge serves as Vice President of Acquisitions for Ashford Inc. (NYSE American: AINC), supporting both Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE: AHT) and Braemar Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: BHR). An established real estate professional with over 25 years of hospitality experience, Adam has been with Ashford since 2014. He is responsible for sourcing acquisition and development opportunities, including formulating investment strategies and leading the feasibility analysis, underwriting and due diligence process. Prior, Mr. Tegge served as the Vice President of Asset Management for Ashford where he managed a $1.5 billion portfolio of full and select service assets and was responsible to driving incremental revenue generation through development and implementation of both property and portfolio level strategies. Ashford’s two REIT’s have a high-quality hospitality portfolio consisting of over 100 assets, totaling 26,000 keys and operated under brands such as Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Tegge held various operational roles including General Manager and Director of Operations with organizations including Winegardner & Hammons, Crown American Hotels, and Intercontinental Hotels Group. He has strong relationships within the industry and his deep operating experience includes asset management, revenue management and third-party management collaboration for a variety of real estate asset classes. Adam is an active member of the Hotel Asset Managers Association (“HAMA”), serves as the chairman of the education committee and earned his Certified Hotel Asset Manager (“CHAM”) designation in 2017. He is a board member with the Penn State Hotel & Restaurant Society ("PSHRS"), serves as their Treasurer and a frequent guest lecturer at the university. Mr. Tegge received a Master of Business Administration degree in finance from The Olin School, Washington University in Saint Louis, and a Bachelor of Science degree in hotel management from the Pennsylvania State University.

Garrett Stutz has served as Senior Advisor of Logistics & Expansion at Chicken N Pickle since 2021. In this role, Stutz utilizes his background in financial analysis to oversee the company’s expansion process, including market analysis, research, planning and the implementation. His primary responsibilities include creating strategic action plans focused on long-term goals and potential opportunities, securing incentives, performing competitive analysis to uncover untapped opportunities in the site selection process and evaluating site submittal packages including ingress/egress, parking, zoning, tenant mix, demographics, general geographic area and adjacent properties. Prior to joining Chicken N Pickle, Stutz spent more than a decade playing professional basketball across eight countries, including six years in Japan. During his time abroad, he created and leveraged global partnerships and relationships to secure more than 50 appearances as a motivational speaker, sharing his passion for striving for success and personal integrity. A life-long resident of Kansas City, Stutz is a graduate of North Kansas City High School and received a B.A. in Finance from the Barton School of Business at Wichita State University. As a student-athlete, he was a four-year Shocker-Scholar Athlete and was highly involved in Fellowship of Christian Athletes among other campus organizations.

Tyler Kent is the founder and managing principal of Opwest Partners. Tyler is a 17-year business executive specializing in hospitality, mixed-use, commercial and residential real estate. Tyler's project background includes over $4B in the investment and development of a variety of assets including hotels, resorts, residential, retail and office properties. Tyler's expertise encompasses development, asset management, private equity, banking, consulting, and project management. Prior to forming Opwest Tyler led a variety projects as the Vice President of Acquisitions and Development of The Robert Green Company. Development ventures under Tyler's leadership included the Montage Healdsburg Resort & Residences in Healdsburg, CA, the Silver Rock Resort and Residences in La Quinta, CA, the Pendry Hotel in San Diego, CA, the Everly Kimpton Hotel in Hollywood, CA, the Del Mar Resort in Del Mar, CA and the Hope Street Joie De Vivre Hotel in Silicon Valley, CA. Prior to TRGC, Tyler was the Director of Acquisitions and Development for The Athens Group, a full service real estate development firm specializing in mixed-use urban and resort hotels, residences, and recreational properties (www.athensdevco.com). During his tenure with The Athens Group Tyler was responsible for all new project acquisitions, planning, programming, strategy, entitlements, development coordination, sales and marketing strategies, capital market activities and ongoing asset management. Notable ventures include the revitalization of the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, CA, the Montage Deer Valley Resort in Park City, UT, the Montage Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills, CA, the Edition West Hollywood in West Hollywood, CA, and the expansion of the Inn at Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, SC, among others. Before joining The Athens Group, Tyler worked for Starwood Capital's development division, Starwood Development, based in Scottsdale, AZ. While with Starwood Development, Tyler focused on a number of mixed-use hospitality, resort and residential development projects located throughout the United States and Mexico including; Scottsdale, AZ, Washington DC, Seattle, WA, Cabo San Lucas, and Mammoth Lakes, CA. Prior to Starwood Development, Tyler was a Senior Analyst for the commercial real estate division of Western Alliance Bancorporation's Arizona subsidiary, Alliance Bank where he executed a number of debt transactions including acquisition and development financing, construction, bridge and permanent financing across a broad spectrum of real estate assets. Tyler completed his Master's degree in Business Administration from The University of Arizona with emphasis in Finance and Marketing in 2006. He completed his bachelor's degree in Business Administration in 2001 at the University of San Francisco where he also played Division-I Men's Soccer. Tyler is a member of the Urban Land Institute Urban Development Mixed-Use Council.

Mason has more than two decades of experience designing complex interiors across the globe. She touts a diverse and extensive range of boutique luxury hospitality experience including hotels and resorts, event spaces, bars and restaurants, sports facilities and branded retail environments. Her passion for design and creative solutions has resulted in long-lasting relationships with dozens of clients who find her design philosophy and approach inspiring. In turn, Mason has also played an integral role in business development efforts throughout her career. She’s responsible for leading Populous design efforts on a wide variety of project types, overseeing all phases of design including programming, design development, construction documentation and furniture and interior finish specifications. She creates environments that transcend the traditional boutique lifestyle experience with approachable, authentic and visionary design solutions.

Gene Kornota co-founded Chicago-based Rebel Hospitality (formerly Neighborhood Development Corporation) in 1988 and has been leveraging his vision and development expertise ever since. Gene has overseen the design of over 17 independent boutique and brand hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues in Chicago, Memphis and Phoenix. As a Principal of Rebel Hospitality, Gene focuses much of his attention on the design, planning, engineering, creative, and branding portions of the business. He is integrally involved in each and every facet from conception, vision and branding. Gene has an ear to the ground and an astute understanding of what consumers are looking for. Combined with his knowledge of current trends, Gene creates hotels full of imagination. Gene speaks on many industry panels and at trade shows on the topic of boutique hotel development, investment and design. Under Gene’s leadership, virtually every property and outlet has received multiple industry, press and consumer awards and accolades for spectacular design as well as innovative extra’s. Gene’s philosophy is all about surprising and delighting guests.

Experienced, proven Business Development leader, relationship builder, and national speaker with a demonstrated history of working in the events services industry. Skilled in Catering, Special Events, Sales, Hospitality Industry, and F&B Trends.

Over 15 years of industry experience; Diverse perspective having represented owners, brands and advisors on three continents Extensive experience throughout Latin America and Europe Joined Trinity as VP of Asset Management, helping to effectuate value-add, operational strategies and providing critical oversight of hotel financial performance. Previously served as Vice President for CPG Hospitality with responsibilities including asset management, development and acquisitions. Was part of the formation of Alójica, a real estate investment management company focused exclusively on lodging opportunities in Mexico. Was Director of Development for Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, based in Miami covering the Americas, before moving to London to cover Europe. Her responsibilities included executing brand expansion strategy, specifically: site selection, project evaluation, and contract negotiation. Prior to Four Seasons, Samantha was a manager at EY, focusing on hotel and real estate advisory throughout the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Began her career in hospitality holding various operational positions within the restaurant, private members’ club, and hotel industries. Holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration with a minor in Latin American Studies.

Appointed by Siemens as Head of Commercial Markets in the U.S., David oversees Siemens’ business in the real estate industry. In this role, David is responsible for developing a road map for the business, driving customer engagement and deal development, executing the solutions and maintaining a hand on the pulse of the market. Prior to leading the Commercial Market, David served as Chief City Executive for the Northeast. As the lead City executive, David built the regional Siemens teams, established relationships with key city and regional decision makers, and drove Siemens’ solutions into the respective markets. Before becoming involved with Cities business, David was a Director of Business Development with Siemens One, a division of Siemens Corporation. This organization within Siemens is focused on bringing the breadth of Siemens to projects thereby providing a single, integrated, solution. David’s leadership has produced more than $1.5B in incremental sales during his ten-year tenure. David began his Siemens career as Product Specialist for Siemens Medical Systems where he became involved in the FDA pre-market approval (PMA) program for the MRI systems. Following success in receiving Siemens first FDA approval for MRI, David took an assignment to lead a new program for the analysis of blood for the detection of cancer where he was responsible for product development, marketing and sales planning through regulatory release. Success of this program led to the spinoff of the technology to a start-up company. At this time, David became involved in the beginnings of the medical image networking systems (PACS) business where he was responsible for developing the U.S. Market. Successful launch of this program led David into his final role before leaving Siemens to start his own business. As director of Siemens Healthcare, David developed the cross company offering to build the first Siemens integrated hospital. David left Siemens for two years to launch a new company, Hipression, LLC. The company was focused on developing and marketing medical image data compression technology. The first generation of product was able to far exceed existing commercially available products. David previously served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the Regional Plan Association and is a member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Washington University, St. Louis and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California.

Patricia Rotondo is a Senior Principal, Hospitality and Residential market leader at Lamar Johnson Collaborative, with over 27 years of experience with award-winning projects worldwide. She has a uniquely creative and concept-based design approach that delivers forward-thinking designs and guides collaboration between the client and team. She is responsible for developing design concepts and space analyses for significant projects, creating thoughtfully designed destinations, including hotels and resorts, multi-family communities, government buildings, mixed-use, residential, senior living communities, higher education, entertainment and cultural, working with clients globally. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including IIDA Member of the Year award. She has been featured in leading design publications such as Interior Design, Hospitality Design and Boutique Design. Her approach is highly collaborative and the results, spectacular finished spaces, thrill her clients. Ms. Rotondo has always strived to discover, design and inspire. About LJC LJC is the full-service design and architecture arm of Clayco and is committed to enhancing the quality of the human experience and to improving how design and architecture can impact each individual’s emotional being. By harnessing the power of integrated design—including architecture, workplace strategy, interior design, landscape architecture, urban planning and engineering—the company achieves its clients’ goals and aspirations. For more information, visit www.theljc.com.