Board Of Trustees

Mr. Fisher received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Syracuse University in 1977, a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Nova Southeastern University in 1980, and a Masters of Law in Taxation from the University of Miami in 1981. He is a licensed attorney and practiced at Jones & Foster P.A. and Jeffrey H. Fisher P.A. for a total of five years prior to starting his career in the hospitality industry. Additionally, Mr. Fisher currently serves as a Board Member of Marriott’s The Residence Inn Association (TRIA).

Mr. Brewer was formerly Executive Director – US Student Housing with Greystar Real Estate Partners. He served as executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of Educational Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: EDR) from August 2014 – September 2018.  From 2007 through 2012, Mr. Brewer served as executive vice president and chief financial officer for Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc., the leading provider of technology-enabled claims and productivity management solutions. He was responsible for internal and external financial reporting, income taxes, real estate, budgeting, treasury and internal auditing. From 1983 to 2007, Mr. Brewer worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he rose to the position of partner with a client base focused on public and private real estate investment trusts. A certified public accountant (inactive), Mr. Brewer has a bachelor’s degree in commerce and business administration from the University of Alabama.

Prior to April, 2018 Mr. Perlmutter was a Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer with The Macerich Company, a publicly traded REIT. He joined Macerich in 2012 as Executive Vice President of Leasing. He previously was the managing member and founder of Davis Street Land Company, LLC, a privately held firm focused on the development, management and ownership of upscale shopping centers, which owned a 3.0 million square foot mall portfolio prior to its sale of assets to General Growth Properties and Taubman Centers in 2011. From 1983 to 1988, Mr. Perlmutter worked as an investment analyst for Heitman Financial Services, Ltd. in its acquisitions and dispositions division. From 1988 to 1990, he served as President of Heitman Financial, in which capacity he was responsible for overseeing all of the company’s acquisitions, financings and dispositions. Mr. Perlmutter subsequently served as Chief Executive Officer of Chicago-based Heitman Retail Properties from 1990 to 1998, where he supervised overall operations and growth of its retail holdings from two retail properties to 20 directly managed malls and 29 joint ventures in regional malls. From 1998 to 2001, he also served on the board of directors of Prime Retail Inc., a NYSE-listed outlet center company and is a former board member of the First Bank of Highland Park. Mr. Perlmutter received a Bachelor of Sciences degree in business administration, with a concentration in real estate, from the University of Colorado.

Mr. Ruhfus is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LodgeWorks Corporation, a hotel development and management company, which owns the Hotel Sierra and AVIA hotel brands. Mr. Ruhfus also serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wichita Consulting Company, L.P., a consulting services company. Previously, Mr. Ruhfus served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Summerfield Hotel Corporation, an upscale extended-stay hotel chain, from its founding in 1988 until its sale to Wyndham International, Inc. in 1998. Mr. Ruhfus served as President of the Residence Inn Company from February 1983 though July 1987 (when it was acquired by Marriott International, Inc.). Mr. Ruhfus joined the Residence Inn Company after spending four years as Director of Marketing for VARTA Battery, Europe’s largest battery manufacturer. Prior to this position, he was a management consultant for McKinsey and Company in its Dusseldorf, Germany office. Mr. Ruhfus was a German Air Force Lieutenant and received a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in 1968. His graduate degrees include an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971 and a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Meunster in 1974. Mr. Ruhfus is a member of the international chapter of The Young Presidents Organization and serves on the board of several European companies. Mr. Ruhfus previously served on the Board of Trustees of Innkeepers from July 1997 until Innkeepers’ sale in June 2007.

She currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Gaming Inc. (“Affinity”), a nine casino multi-jurisdictional gaming company. In her current role, she is responsible for the day to day operations of the casinos as well as all aspects of the company’s accounting, finance and investor relation functions. In addition to her primary employment as CEO of Affinity, Ms. Higgins was also named Chief Executive Officer and non-independent director of Gaming and Hospitality Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:  GHACU), a newly organized special purpose acquisition company or “SPAC” formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with Affinity and one or more businesses, which went public in February 2021.. Before becoming Chief Executive Officer at Affinity, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Affinity from 2018.   From 2017-2018, she served as CFO of VICI Properties, a REIT spin off from Caesars Entertainment, and prior to that as CFO for Caesars Entertainment Operating Company from 2014-2017. For the 17 years prior to that, Ms. Higgins served as CFO at companies such as Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc., Herbst Gaming, Inc., and Camco, Inc.

Ms. Williams has been a trustee since 2021. She recently served from 2017-2020 as senior vice president at Kaufman Lynn Construction, one of south Florida’s largest construction companies, where her responsibilities included leading public affairs and community engagement efforts. Before joining Kaufman Lynn, from 2010-2017, she served as regional manager, external affairs for Florida Power & Light (FPL) and later director, corporate engagement, diversity and inclusion for NextEra Energy, one of the nation’s leading clean energy companies and parent company of FPL, where her responsibilities included managing local external stakeholder relations and developing corporate strategies and initiatives for employee engagement as well as diversity and inclusion initiatives, respectively. In 2004, Ms. Williams founded the law firm of Isaacs Williams which was focused on real estate, probate, land use and government relations. Prior to 2004, Ms. Williams held roles at other law firms, as well as IBM, Wang Laboratories and AT&T Wireless. Ms. Williams received her bachelor’s degree in business administration from George Washington University and her Juris Doctor from Nova Southeastern University

Mr. Grissen became a trustee in 2021 after having recently retired as group president following a stellar 35- year career at Marriott International, Inc. He started at Marriott in 1986 and concluded his esteemed career as Group President where his responsibilities included the financial management and leadership of the Americas lodging operations, comprising more than 5,500 hotels and a work force of approximately 160,000 associates. This included oversight of owner and franchise relations, sales and marketing, revenue management, human resources, engineering, rooms operations, food and beverage, retail, spa, golf, information resources and development. In addition to the Americas, Mr. Grissen was responsible for Marriott’s Global Operations organization, RitzCarlton and Edition brands. Prior to his latest position, Mr. Grissen served as group president, the Americans; president, Americas; executive vice president of the eastern region; senior vice president of the mid-atlantic region and senior vice president of finance and business development. Mr. Grissen currently serves on the board for Regis Corporation, a publicly-traded company and the largest hair salon chain in the world where he is a member of the Audit Committee, Technology Committee and chair of the Nominating and Governance Committees. He also serves on the board of Greenwood Racing, a casino, on-line betting and thoroughbred racing company based in Pennsylvania. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in finance from Loyola University Chicago.