Mid-Atlantic Hospitality Summit

Mr. Amin started his career at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he advised public and private technology companies on merger and acquisition transactions and capital markets activities. He currently has overall responsibility for 75 hotels owned and operated by Shamin Hotels, the largest hotel owner and operator in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Additionally, Mr. Amin oversees the operations of Shamin’s Assisted Living and Dementia facilities in Virginia. During his tenure at Shamin Hotels, the company has received numerous awards and recognitions including the Developer of the Year from Intercontinental Hotels Group and the Multi-Brand Developer of the Year, and New Build/Adaptive Reuse of the Year from Hilton Hotels. Mr. Amin has been repeatedly recognized as one of the Fifty Most Influential Virginians by Virginia Business and was awarded Hilton’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. Mr. Amin graduated summa cum laude from The Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, completing his B.S. in Economics and MBA. He is passionate about assisting the communities where the associates of Shamin Hotels live and work and currently serves as the past chairman of the board of Richmond Region Tourism and serves on the boards of the Community Foundation, the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, the Virginia Community Development Corporation, Sports Backers, Venture Richmond, the Virginia Council on Economic Education, and the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority. Additionally, Mr. Amin serves on the Treasury Board of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates at the pleasure of the Governor of Virginia.

James (Jim) Tierney is the Senior Vice President of Development and Owner Relations for Hyatt, responsible for the growth of Hyatt’s top-performing select service brands: Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Caption by Hyatt and Hyatt Studios in North America. Tierney has been instrumental in helping strategically expand the Hyatt Place and Hyatt House brands into locations where Hyatt’s loyal guests and members are traveling including many new markets for Hyatt such as Montréal, Québec, Panama City Beach, Fla., Sacramento, Calif., Virginia Beach, Va., and more. He also helped launch Hyatt Studios, Hyatt’s first upper midscale extended-stay brand, in April 2023 and just celebrated the inaugural groundbreaking of the first in Mobile AL in November 2023. Tierney joined Hyatt in 2014 and previously served as Hyatt’s Vice President of Development and Owner Relations where he led a team responsible for the development and growth of the Hyatt Place and Hyatt House brands in the Eastern half of the United States. Prior to joining Hyatt, Tierney served as Director of Development for Cambria Suites at Choice Hotels International. Tierney earned a B.A. in history from Tufts University and holds a M.B.A. from Babson College Graduate School of Business. He lives in Potomac, Maryland with his wife, daughter and black Labrador Penny.

Barry Tiggemann, CCIM, serves as the Sr. Director of Franchise Development at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, where responsibilities include leading franchise growth for the Wyndham Grand and The Registry Collection in the upper upscale and luxury segments across North America. With extensive experience in the hospitality and commercial real estate sectors, Barry has previously held senior positions at Lidl US and Choice Hotels International, and has played pivotal roles in real estate management and development. Barry is the President and Managing Principal of Seven Star Real Estate LLC, focusing on hospitality and multifamily sales, and has a solid educational background from Harvard University and other institutions, with degrees in Business Management, International Studies, and an MBA.

Ben Cary is the Vice President of PME (Premium, Midscale and Economy) Development at Accor where he leads USA and Canada expansion efforts. Accor Brands that Ben is focused on are Pullman, Swissôtel, Novotel, Tribe and Handwritten Collection. PME hotels represent more than 80% of Accor’s footprint, sitting alongside the equally prestigious luxury and lifestyle portfolio. Each hotel is plugged into The Accor Reservation System and ALL Accor, the most international loyalty program with more than 100 million members. Over the past year, PME has opened hotels in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Orlando, Miami and Puerto Rico. Ben has been with Accor since 2021. Prior to Accor, he was SVP at Meininger Hotels, where he led all facets of the company’s North America expansion, including developing and implementing the regional strategy, leading the team and overseeing the development of the first USA hotel. Prior to that role, Ben was Development Director at Starwood Hotels & Resorts where he earned Deal of the Year three times. Earlier in his career, Ben worked for the investment company Hotel Capital Advisers and on property at The Carlyle Hotel in New York City.

Ana Maria Huertas Iragorri has been focused on delivering elevated guest experiences in the hospitality space since 2003. Her vast experience includes successful collaborations with ownership groups, major hospitality brands, and the greater specification community, where she often highlights go-to-market strategies for sustainable, tech-forward, and human-centric guestroom control. Ana Maria is committed to innovations that improve the future of the hospitality market while enhancing the guest experience. Born and raised in Bogota, Colombia, Ana Maria is currently based in Pennsylvania where she works alongside Lutron’s global specification and hospitality team in the U.S., Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. She has spoken to audiences around the world on the topic of innovative lighting design and smart control for the hospitality market, including the Forbes Travel Gala Summit ('23), the HIC Conference in Jakarta ('23), Hotel & Hospitality Expo in KSA ('22, '23), and various Global Hospitality Talk sessions. Ana Maria has both a bachelor’s degree and an MBA in International Business from Allegiant International University in San Diego, CA. She is passionate about traveling, reading, arts, and the opportunity to embrace other cultures and traditions in the pursuit of meaningful, life-changing experiences.

Kimberly Wachen is a Partner with the law firm of Arent Fox Schiff and co-chair of AFS’s hospitality group. Kimberly finds creative solutions to complex problems to benefit her clients and close transactions efficiently. She is recognized as one of the top real estate lawyers in the country by Chambers USA, Legal 500, Super Lawyers, American Lawyer, Washingtonian Magazine and other leading industry publications. She represents hotel owners on the development, purchase, sale, management, franchising and financing of hotels and mixed-use projects located throughout the United States. She is particularly skilled in negotiating joint venture agreements and financing arrangements, including acquisition, construction and mezzanine loans, and take-out financing, for large real estate projects. As a result of representing franchisors, hotel owners and hotel operators, Kimberly is better able to anticipate issues and suggest practical resolutions of solutions when negotiating hotel transactional documents.

Jeremy has over 24 years of construction management experience on various Base Building, Adaptive reuse, Structural Rehabilitation, and Tenant Fit-Out projects. With a focus on Winmar’s base building and new construction, Jeremy has the ability to be involved in all aspects of the construction process including the development of conceptual design and estimates, preconstruction schedules, planning, contract administration and client interface. From the time of the project’s inception, Jeremy will aggressively participate in preconstruction meetings, develop, and manage schedules, assist in determining substantial milestones and completion dates while considering owner/building requirements. Jeremy’s success has been attributed to his ability to maintain positive working relationships and communication with the owner, consultants, and subcontractors to achieve an efficient project environment while

As a valued team member of clients in the real estate and hospitality industries, Rori is able to leverage her understanding of their business concerns and objectives with her deep experience and current market knowledge to navigate her clients from term sheet to closing of complex commercial transactions. Recently, Rori has been speaking to clients and the real estate community on the uptick in preferred equity transactions, sharing the depth of her experience with both joint ventures and financings and offering guidance on these transactions. She represents local and national developers, REITs, institutional equity investors, institutional and non-institutional lenders, and hotel owners and operators with their commercial real estate development and finance transactions. These transactions involve a variety of asset types, including mixed-use development, office, retail, hotel, condominium, multifamily and residential and commercial property. Working with clients across the United States, she assists both borrowers and lenders on financings, and hotel owners and operators on the negotiation of managements and license agreements. Additionally, she partners with clients on real estate acquisitions, dispositions, workouts, and equity and debt participations. Rori is a frequent speaker and panelist on the hospitality industry and preferred equity transactions. Relevant Experience Represented Hersha Hospitality Trust on its sale of seven Manhattan limited-service hotels to a joint venture between Hersha and Cindat Capital Management Ltd., in a transaction valued at $571.4 million. The transaction included senior and mezzanine financing in an aggregate amount of $335 million from Natixis Real Estate Capital LLC and Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. Represented leading private equity firm in the acquisition of 38 limited service and extended stay hotels, 4,950 rooms, for $590 million, and negotiation of mortgage and mezzanine financing from two major financial institutions and the securitization of the mortgage and a mezzanine tier. Represented a major insurance company with a preferred equity investment in the construction of a 391-key nationally branded hotel in Chicago, Illinois for total project cost of $113 million. Represented a major insurance company with a $150 million preferred equity investment in the acquisition and renovation of an office building in Chicago, Illinois. Represented a major insurance company with a preferred equity investment in the renovation of two well-known Walt Disney World hotels in Orlando, Florida. Represented a national lending institution with a preferred equity investment in the acquisition and development of a mixed-use property in New York City for a total project cost of $87 million. Represented a joint venture in the acquisition of a 34-story, one million square foot skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts for $561 million. Represented an institutional lender with the $159.5 million mortgage and mezzanine financing of a historic hotel in Washington, DC. The transaction included the sale of one of the floors as an air space parcel to a vacation club and the negotiation of the documents governing the relationship between the hotel and vacation club. Represented a major insurance company with the upsizing of a $177 million preferred equity interest in a hotel located in the heart of New York City’s Times Square. Advised Israel Discount Bank of New York with a $31.5 million mortgage loan to Berit Realty LLC, owner of SIXTY hotel 6 Columbus, located at 6 Columbus Circle (308 West 58th Street), New York City. Representation of an operator in the negotiation of a joint venture agreement for the acquisition and development of a to-be-constructed 128-room Mondrian hotel in the Old City of Istanbul, Turkey. Representation of an operator in the acquisition, lease and management negotiations with respect to food and beverage operations at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada, and related documentation and negotiation with respect to Delano, Las Vegas, Nevada. Representation of a developer in the negotiation of a purchase and sale agreement for the acquisition of a newly constructed 185-room Hyatt Place in New York City (Midtown). Representation of an owner in the negotiation of management and license agreements for a Crowne Plaza in Charlotte, North Carolina. Representation of a developer in the negotiation of management and license agreements for a Courtyard by Marriott in College Park, Maryland. Representation of a joint venture in the negotiation of a $350 million loan secured by the St. Regis in Laguna Beach, California. Representation of a joint venture in the negotiation of a $201 million loan secured by the Anaheim Hilton in Anaheim, California, and negotiated the joint venture agreement and related documents on behalf of the developer. Representation of equity in the refinance of a $250 million loan secured by the historic and award-winning Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, in Washington, DC. Representation of a joint venture in the acquisition and $130 million financing of a 35-acre mixed-use development project (including hotel and branded residences as well as commercial, retail and residential) in Huntington Beach, California, known as Pacific City, and negotiated the joint venture agreement and related documents on behalf of the developer. Representation of equity in the acquisition of a 20-acre mixed-used development project (including retail, restaurant, hotel, entertainment, commercial, residential, education and civic space) in Miami, Florida, known as Miami Worldcenter, and negotiated the joint venture agreement and related documents on behalf of equity. Representation of a developer in the $46 million refinance of a GSA leased office building in Washington, DC. Representation of a developer in the restructure of a $200 million real estate portfolio of undeveloped land, hotels, mixed-use, office and development holdings in California and Texas. Representation of an equity investor in a $262 million purchase of two office buildings and a development parcel located in Washington, DC.