Speaker: Mr. Robert D. Kline ’84, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder

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Robert D. Kline ’84 is the CEO and Co-Founder of the Chartres Lodging Group, LLC, a private equity investment firm formed in 2002 and focused on the lodging sector; and Co-Chairman of Kokua Hospitality, LLC, which was formed in 2005 as a property management firm specializing in turnarounds. Kline is recognized as a proactive investor and a leading asset manager in the lodging sector. He has been an early cyclical investor in conference centers, urban hotels and destination resorts. Kline was among the first investors to evolve an institutionally recognized program of asset management systems and procedures and is a Founding Director of the Hospitality Asset Managers Association.

Kline began his career in 1984 upon graduating from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration (SHA) and has since led over $10 billion in transactional activity. He pioneered the establishment of a preeminent lodging investment and asset management advisory practice under The Yarmouth Group/Lend Lease, and conducted extensive business throughout the U.S., Asia, Mexico, and Europe. Kline previously served as the initial head of acquisitions for Strategic Hotel Capital during its formative years, where he oversaw their purchase of $2 billion of luxury hotels across three countries. In 1998 he began investing directly as a principal and has successfully invested over $6 billion of capital on his own behalf and a select group of private investors and institutional funds.

Chartres Lodging has developed into one of the industry’s leading investment firms and has invested $4.0 billion since 2002, achieving over a 65% internal rate of return on its monetized investments. Chartres Lodging currently asset-manages hotels, resorts, and conference centers located throughout the United States, and was active in Japan over a 10-year period. The firm is headquartered in San Francisco and operates from additional offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Denver. Kokua Hospitality serves as property manager and receiver for hotels totaling 3,000 rooms located throughout the United States.

Mr. Kline sits on the boards of AH&LA, AH&LA’s Education Foundation, and WildCare of the Bay Area. He’s an Advisory Board Member of Cornell’s Center for Real Estate Finance and the Dean’s Advisory Board. He established No Reservations Giving Foundation – a non-profit charitable program and sits on ULI’s Hotel Development Council where he developed the ULI HDC Confidence Meter. Mr. Kline is a frequent lecturer and contributing author to Hotel Asset Management, and spearheaded HAMA’s first international expansion into Japan and the creation of the Certified Hotel Asset Manager program.