Management Team
Jon Kurnit
jkurnit@beaconhp.com
Mr. Kurnit is a Principal of Beacon Hospitality Partners. Prior to joining Beacon, he was global head of the DTZ Hospitality Group, and prior to DTZ, Mr. Kurnit was President and Founder of InnVision Hospitality Services, LLC, a hotel management and advisory company. From 2004-2006, InnVision served exclusively as the owners representative to Strategic Hotel Capital, LLC, an entity controlled by affiliates of Goldman Sachs and Prudential. InnVision spearheaded the disposition of this $1.6 billion hotel portfolio which consisted of seven first-class and luxury hotel assets located in New York City and California.
Prior to InnVision, Mr. Kurnit was head of Franchise and Real Estate Development for the Americas Division of InterContinental Hotels Group where he was responsible for the growth and development of all IHG brands in North, Central and South America. Mr. Kurnit's prior experience also includes serving as Managing Director of the Mortgage and Real Estate Division of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association where he was responsible for the asset management and disposition of TIAA's $300 million equity hotel portfolio. Prior to TIAA, Mr. Kurnit spent 12 years with Prudential where he was responsible for the asset management and investment function for the company's $3 billion equity hotel investment portfolio, as well as Prudential's hotel lending activities. Mr. Kurnit holds a B.S. in Hospitality Management from Florida International University.
Mr. Huffsmith is a Principal of Beacon Hospitality Partners. Prior to joining Beacon, he was a Managing Director with DTZ Hospitality Group. Prior to joining DTZ, Mr. Huffsmith was Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for CNL Income Properties, Inc., a public REIT. Mr. Huffsmith’s experience also includes serving as President of Regent International Hotels, where he was responsible for leading the worldwide expansion of the luxury Regent Hotel company. Prior to Regent, Mr. Huffsmith served with InterContinental Hotels Group as head of Development, Asset Management and Technical Services in EMEA, as well as LaSalle Partners and Prudential Realty Group. Mr. Huffsmith holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He also received a B.S. in Hotel Administration from Cornell University. Mr. Huffsmith was an accredited instructor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Office of Continuing Education from 1995 to 2003.
Keith Lindsay
klindsay@beaconhp.com
Mr. Lindsay is a Principal of Beacon Hospitality Partners. Prior to joining Beacon, he was Chief Operating Office, Head of Hospitality for ORCO Property Group, a leading investor and developer in Eastern & Central Europe, where he was responsible for the restructuring of the company. Prior to Orco, Mr. Lindsay was a Managing Director at AIG Investments and established the Global Hospitality Investment Group for AIG Global Real Estate based in New York. In this role, Mr. Lindsay was responsible for hotel investments and joint ventures in Europe, Mexico and India.
Previously, he was COO of Envergure and Louvre Hotels, the 2nd biggest European chain of hotels. Mr. Lindsay has also held a number of business development and real estate roles in the Walt Disney Company, InterContinental Hotels Group and Accor Hotels. He has an MBA from IESE, Barcelona.
Jack Couture
jcouture@beaconhp.com
Mr. Couture is a Senior Managing Director of Beacon Hospitality Partners. Prior to joining Beacon, Mr. Couture was Senior Vice President of HotelAVE, where he provided investment and operational advisory services to private ownership and investor groups. Preceding his position at HotelAVE, he was responsible for developing strategic master plans at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Previous to joining Starwood Hotels, Mr. Couture was Vice President, Asset Management for the Starwood Capital Grou where he managed the Company’s Asian Fund that included a portfolio of hospitality, commercial and residential properties in Thailand and Japan. He also managed a 14-property domestic hotel portfolio and successfully completed six single asset hotel sales. Upon joining Starwood Capital he managed the origination and underwriting of hotel properties for the Starwood Mezzanine Debt Fund.
Prior to Starwood, Mr. Couture served as Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Asset Management at LaSalle Partners, Vice President of Asset Management at the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank (HSBC), Director of Hotel Acquisitions at Liberty Real Estate and Asset Manager at Prudential Realty Group. Before pursuing a career in real estate, Mr. Couture had a broad background in hotel operations that spanned ten years, having held management positions with Marriott, Sheraton and the Howard Johnson Company. He was a Regional Manager for Howard Johnson Motor Lodges prior to pursuing a Masters Degree that he earned in 1984 from the School of Hotel Management at Cornell University.
Daniel Poser is a Senior Managing Director of Beacon Hospitality Partners and in charge of the London office. Prior to joining Beacon Hospitality Partners, he was Group Commercial Director and Managing Director Hotels at London & Regional Properties. There he was responsible for hotel acquisitions, financing, disposal and asset management. Significant transactions he led during this time were the acquisition of the Fairmont Monte Carlo (Monaco’s largest hotel), The Strand Palace in Cental London (an 800-bedroom full service value-oriented hotel where he had direct oversight of the general manager and his team), Radisson Blu Zurich Airport, Chewton Glen (one of the UK’s leading luxury country house hotels) and three portfolios of hotels leased to Accor. Mr. Poser also lead the negotiation and settlement of the 2009 rent review at the London Hilton Park Lane and as a representative of the majority shareholder on the board of David Lloyd Leisure, the UK’s leading upscale racquets and health club operator.
Having trained as a chartered accountant at Arthur Andersen in London where he specialized in serving hotels clients, he spent six years for InterContinental Hotels Group in various roles including Director of Finance for Southern Europe and as a Director in the Development and Asset Management division of the group. In these roles he specialised in financial and commercial oversight of major city centre properties, capital planning and control of renovation projects. He has significant experience in negotiating and working with hotel management contracts. Mr. Poser brings a strong commercial approach focused on creating and realising value for hotel owners and banks. Mr. Poser gained an MA in English Language and Literature at Oxford University.
Mr. Waldman is a Managing Director of Beacon Hospitality Partners. Prior to his current role, Mr. Waldman served as Senior Vice President of DTZ Hospitality Group serving in the New York office. Prior to joining DTZ Hospitality Group, Mr. Waldman served as Vice President for The Mumford Company, a hotel brokerage firm which focuses on mid-market hotels. In this role, he was recognized as the top producing non-partner in the firm, as quantified by transaction volume. Throughout his career, Mr. Waldman has been involved in underwriting more than $6 billion in hotel asset and hospitality companies, participated in more than $1 billion in development projects and marketed more than 100 individual hotels for sale. He has experience with a diverse array of hospitality assets including portfolio transactions, luxury hotel acquisitions and development, and midscale and extended stay properties. Prior to joining Mumford, Mr. Waldman served with Innvest Hotel Brokers based in New York and with InterContinental Hotels Group where he was involved in expansion initiatives, brand strategy and project development. Prior to IHG, Mr. Waldman worked at Arthur Andersen and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Waldman is a graduate of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration where he completed a dual concentration in Real Estate and Finance.
Mr. Knauer is a Vice President with Beacon Hospitality Partners. Prior to joining Beacon, Mr. Knauer served as Associate Vice President at DTZ Hospitality Group, a full service real estate investment banking firm. In this role, he was directly involved in over $2.5 billion of hospitality specific assignments requiring asset management, transactional, advisory and financial services. Prior to DTZ, Mr. Knauer held the position of senior analyst for Molinaro Koger, an international hotel real estate advisory firm. At Molinaro Koger, Mr. Knauer assisted the hospitality deal team members in the underwriting of transactions for hotel assets located throughout the United States and Europe valued in excess of $1 billion. In addition, Mr. Knauer performed valuation analyses for hotel properties owned by local and national hotel companies, financial institutions and individual owner/operators. His clients include Blackstone Real Estate Group, Prudential Real Estate, Marriott International, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Host Hotels and Resorts, Global Hyatt Corporation and FelCor Lodging Trust. Mr. Knauer earned a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration from Cornell University with a concentration in Real Estate Finance and is currently pursuing a Masters in Real Estate from New York University.
Ms. Chan is a Vice President with Beacon Hospitality Partners. Prior to joining Beacon, Ms. Chan served as an Associate at Trinity Hotel Investors, a global hotel real estate investment company, and functioned as an Asset Manager overseeing portfolios of flagged domestic hotel assets and analyzing the financial performance of an upscale domestic resort and independent international luxury hotel for the Vice President of Asset Management. Prior to Trinity, Ms. Chan held the position of Senior Associate at CIT Commercial Real Estate where she was the hotel underwriter in the Structured Finance Group. Prior to CIT, Ms. Chan was Vice President at InnVest Hotel Brokers where she was involved in hotel investment sales, financing, brokerage, hotel advisory, and sourcing new deals in the mid-Atlantic market.
Before pursuing a career in real estate, Ms. Chan developed a broad operations background at independent and boutique hotels in key domestic and international locations. She began her career at Warwick International Hotels’ 425-room flagship property in New York City and, subsequently, became Director of Sales for Warwick International where she was responsible for the sales and marketing efforts for 33 hotels worldwide. Ms. Chan is a graduate of New York University where she earned a B.S. in Hotel Management cum laude and a M.S. in Real Estate Finance.
Anna Cohen is a Senior Asset Manager with Beacon Hospitality Partners. Prior to joining Beacon, Ms. Cohen functioned as Hospitality Deputy to the CEO of Orco Property Group, a leading investor and developer in Eastern & Central Europe, where she was responsible of the overall strategy of the hospitality side of the group. Her responsibilities included the streamlining of eleven hotels in Hvar, Croatia and the reorganization of a thirteen-hotel portfolio located in major Eastern & Central European capitals through restructuring the debt, the joint venture partnership and the management company. Prior to Orco Property Group, Anna served as a Senior Analyst at CBRE Hotels where she was a member of the Investment Advisory Group and conducted hotel valuations, operator selection and investment advisory in the EMEA Region.
Ms. Cohen holds a MBA in Hotel Real Estate Finance from IMHI, a joint program between the Cornell School of Hotel Administration and ESSEC Business School in France. Prior to completing her MBA, Ms. Cohen earned a Masters in International Relations and Business in addition to completing three years of law studies at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France.
Binita Patel
bpatel@beaconhp.com
Ms. Patel is an Associate Manager with Beacon Hospitality Partners. Prior to joining Beacon, Ms. Patel served as the Development Manager for HMB Management Inc., a hospitality ownership, management and development company based in Allentown, PA. In this role, Ms. Patel was directly responsible for the company’s hotel developments and acquisitions. She worked directly with Hilton and IHG on behalf of HMB, concentrating on the growth of their focused service assets in the Northeast. She played an integral role in the development of three Hilton properties located in New Jersey and New York. In addition, Ms. Patel served as a Regional Director of Operations for three hotels where she assisted with revenue maximization strategies and marketing plans.
Ms. Patel completed her Master of Management in Hospitality at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, Ithaca and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore concentrating in Real Estate Finance and Investment. She earned a B.S. in International Business and Marketing from Drexel University. Ms. Patel received the AAHOA Future Hotelier of the Year award in 2008 and remains an active member of the organization.
Mr. Lou is an Associate Manager with Beacon Hospitality Partners. Prior to joining Beacon, Mr. Lou served as a Project and Asset Manager for Ketai Realty Corp., a real estate development, investment, and management company based in New York, NY. In this role, Mr. Lou was directly responsible for the company’s hotel developments and asset management. He worked directly with Marriott, Wyndham, and Interstate Hotels & Resorts, concentrating on contract negotiations and performance improvement plans. He played an integral role in the development of a Courtyard by Marriott property located in New York City. Prior to Ketai, Mr. Lou served as an Intern at Trinity Hotel Investors, a global hotel real estate investment firm. At Trinity, Mr. Lou assisted the acquisition team members in the underwriting and due diligence of hotel assets. In addition, Mr. Lou acted as a portfolio asset manager and assisted with revenue maximization strategies. Mr. Lou holds a Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Tourism Management from New York University with a concentration in Lodging Development.