Hotel Asset Value Enhancement (hotelAVE), the premier hotel asset management company, has appointed Stephen Stoycos as the Executive Vice President of the firm's Hospitality Advisory & Consulting business. Mr. Stoycos, a highly regarded industry veteran, will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of the firm's advisory services and expanding the division. The announcement was made by Michelle Russo, Chief Executive Officer of hotelAVE.

"Stephen is an accomplished and well-respected executive whose extensive industry experience and knowledge is absolutely invaluable and consequential to our clients," said Mrs. Russo. "While hotelAVE is most known for our asset management services, we advise on $10-billion of hotel real estate annually through our Hospitality Advisory platform and are excited to maximize the impact of this division. We are confident that with Stephen leading our Advisory efforts and the highly experienced team of 10 advisory team members, we will further drive sustainable growth and performance for our clients."

Said Mr. Stoycos: "It is an honor to join such a reputable firm with a forward-focused and hands-on approach to identifying and maximizing value for clients. This is a pivotal time for the hospitality industry, with ample opportunities to uniquely support owners, lenders and lawyers and innovate. I look forward to working with the exceptional team at hotelAVE and our diverse array of clients to further enhance the value of their hospitality assets."

With over 30 years of experience as a finance real estate and lodging leader, Mr. Stoycos has successfully managed more than $7.0 billion of transactions in global real estate facilities/operations, capital market acquisitions and investment acquisition and disposition for private and public institutional clients. Prior to joining hotelAVE, Mr. Stoycos served as the Managing Director of Investments & Real Estate Capital for a privately held real estate company, where he was responsible for leading the investment strategy, real estate capital markets (debt and equity) and portfolio asset management. During his 10-year tenure with Choice Hotels International, Inc., Mr. Stoycos served as a key member of the senior leadership team and was responsible for managing the company's global corporate real estate functions, capital allocation strategy and upscale development to accelerate franchise growth. In his previous role as Senior Vice President at Marriott International, Inc., Mr. Stoycos was directly responsible for developing, implementing, and executing capital market strategies and was sourcing, structuring, and negotiating over $3 billion in capital transactions, including Marriott's largest development mixed-use deals to date. Mr. Stoycos spent the formative years of his career in various senior leadership positions at real estate and mortgage financing institutions, with roles including Vice President at Citicorp Real Estate; Vice President at Washington Mortgage Financial Group; and Senior Vice President at Transwestern Carey Winston.

As Mr. Stoycos assumes his role as Executive Vice President, Advisory, hotelAVE is also pleased to announce the promotion of Mr. Loren Balsam to Chief Investment Officer. Mr. Balsam, who previously led the Hospitality Advisory & Consulting business, will focus primarily on strategic investments and supporting hotelAVE's clients in identifying and executing new acquisition opportunities, while also spearheading the company's marketing and business development initiatives.

For more information on hotelAVE and their hospitality advisory and consulting services, please visit www.hotelAVE.com.

About hotelAVE

hotelAVE is the industry's leading global hotel asset management firm that has provided services for 1,000+ hotels with more than 200,000 rooms, representing over $150 billion of hotel real estate value. The company's current asset management portfolio comprises over 50 hotels and $5.5 billion in assets under management and the firm advises on an additional $10 billion of hotel real estate annually. Founded by Michelle Russo, hotelAVE offers over 500 combined years of hotel consulting and hospitality industry experience. Through constant innovation and value creation, hotelAVE provides extensive strategic asset management and advisory services to owners, investors, and lenders, including lender collateral review, litigation support, receivership, acquisition underwriting and due diligence, facility programming, and closing prorations. The firm's operational efficiency division, Post Script, leverages extensive data, its proprietary database of thousands of "time to complete" datapoints for various tasks and its hotel operations experts to implement best of class operating structures with operators. For more information on hotelAVE, please visit www.hotelAVE.com.