John Keeling

Biography: John Keeling is Executive Vice President of Valencia Group, a firm specializing in the development and operation of upper-upscale and luxury, independent hotels. In addition to management the company provides development, branding and repositioning services. Mr. Keeling and the Valencia development team are currently pursuing the development of hotel projects in Dallas and Tallahassee. Existing properties are located in Austin, College Station, Irving, Lubbock, and San Antonio, TX and San Jose, CA. Prior to Valencia, Mr. Keeling was Senior Vice President and Managing Director with PKF Consulting, President of Hospitality Advisory Services and President of Hospitality Transactions Inc. Before that he was Regional Managing Partner with Laventhol & Horwath. Prior to that Mr. Keeling was a Manager for Marriott Hotels & Resorts at locations in Washington DC, Chicago and Dallas. During his 30+ years of hotel management, development, brokerage, appraisal and consulting, Mr. Keeling has provided hotel development consulting services and managed a diverse assortment of projects including hotel market studies, highest and best use studies and project financing. Mr. Keeling's areas of specialization and relevant experience include development and repositioning of full-service hotels, workouts and repositioning of troubled hospitality assets, financial structuring of complex real estate projects and, hotel asset management. Mr. Keeling is a recognized authority on hotel matters and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Newsweek, Business Travel News, Hotel & Motel Management, and numerous weekly business journals and daily newspapers. He has been inducted into the exclusive Counselors of Real Estate (CRE) and a Certified Hotel Industry Analyst (CHIA). He was named an Honorary Alumnus of the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management at the University of Houston. Mr. Keeling was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Hotel