1. Reprinted with permission of Hotel Business®
, copyright ICD Publications 2016
As Seen In
December 15, 2016
ten to watch2017
By Nicole Carlino
Senior Associate Editor
W
hat does it take to be a
good leader? When Rich-
ard Stockton, the newly
appointed CEO of Ashford
Hospitality Prime, Inc., was working his
way up the ladder, he worked on a deal
for business magnate Prince Al-Waleed
bin Talal of Saudi Arabia. “We were
asked to value the George V in Paris,
and I had written a memo that had put
forward our valuation, which, frankly, I
thought was very favorable in terms of
the value ascribed to the hotel because
it was one-of-a-kind,” explained Stock-
ton, reminiscing that the prince’s take
was a bit different. “His view was that,
of course, the value was much higher.
He sits us all down, looks at the memo
and then looks up and he’s glaring at us.
‘Who wrote this memo?’ I was the junior
guy on the team and I said sheepishly,
‘I wrote the memo.’ Before he could say
anything, my boss, the global head of real
estate, stepped in and said, ‘We all wrote
this memo.’
“I thought that was a really important
leadership lesson. As a leader, you have
to take accountability for everything your
people do,” said Stockton.
No longer a junior executive, Stockton
took over the reins as CEO of Ashford
Prime last month. While he didn’t have
a lot of exposure to Ashford prior to the
search process, Stockton said everything
he’s learned about the company made it
an attractive professional opportunity.
“They have a very long track record of
impressive performance for sharehold-
ers. Not necessarily with Ashford Prime,
only because it’s a newer listed company,
but certainly through Ashford Trust,
they’ve demonstrated an ability to add
value through the entire lifecycle of an
asset—acquisition, repositioning, op-
erations management, financing, etc.,”
said Stockton, calling Ashford Prime an
entrepreneurial opportunity. “It’s a solid
base from which to really add a lot of val-
ue and grow. I’m intrigued by the growth
aspect and by my ability to have a real
impact on a high-profile company; every-
thing checked the different boxes for me
and I’m excited to be on board,” he said.
Prior to this role, Stockton spent more
than 15 years at Morgan Stanley in real
estate investment banking, rising from
associate to managing director and re-
gional group head. “Although I started
my career in New York, I spent 10 years
in London. My responsibilities were for
all of Europe, Middle East and Africa,
managing a team of more than 50 people
in seven different offices there,” he said.
As co-head of the Asia Pacific Real Estate
Banking Group from 2010-2012, Stock-
ton was responsible for a team of more
than 20 real estate investment bankers
in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and
Mumbai. More recent roles include presi-
dent and CEO-Americas for OUE Lim-
ited, a publicly listed Singaporean prop-
erty company with more than $5 billion
in assets, and global COO, real estate at
Carval Investors, a subsidiary of Cargill.
“I’ve worked in various capacities in
places around world,” said Stockton. “I
got to see a lot of different ways business
is done, many different approaches to
problem-solving, understanding how dif-
ferent business cultures interact and how
to manage those people. That is good
training for solving complex problems
because you’re able to look at things from
all different perspectives. If you’re going
to be a good leader, you have to gain the
respect of the people you’re managing.
You have to convince them the strategy
you’re following is the best one and the
way to do that is… through experience.”
In the short term, Stockton said, his
goal is to really know and understand the
company. “Longer term, it’s growing the
platform—my objective is to increase our
assets and equity market cap so we can
have broader float and more appeal to a
wider class of investor,” he said. Noting
that prior to his hiring, the company ran
a strategic review process as well as one
to solicit interest in buying the company,
Stockton said, “Through that process, a
bona fide buyer did not surface but it may
again in the future, and to the extent it
does, we’ll always be open to a discussion
that maximizes value to shareholders.
For now, we’re really focused on execut-
ing on our growth plans, and that starts
with my appointment. The company al-
ready has a very well-thought-out growth
strategy in place so my job is to focus on
that and ensure it’s delivered.”
Looking at areas for potential improve-
ment, Stockton said, “It’s very clear that
Ashford Prime is subscale. We’ve got to
grow it in order for it to stay at the fore-
front of the minds of investors. We have
to do that by adding asset value and ex-
panding our equity market cap over time.
We’ll continue to focus on acquiring as-
sets that are upper-upscale and luxury in
commercial business districts and resort
locations, and financing those over time
in a way that investors will see is very
accretive.”
But, Stockton said, while greater scale
is needed, the company has good bones.
“Ashford Prime is a top-quality portfolio.
The RevPAR is more than two times the
industry average. Through our affiliated
companies at Ashford and our property
manager Remington, we do have a con-
tinuous stream of unique investment op-
portunities. We can really punch above
our weight versus our size in terms of the
opportunities we see, but also in terms of
the management expertise that we can
bring to bear on any situation,” he said.
And, he noted, the economic outlook for
the industry is looking up. “Coming into
the election, people were a little uncer-
tain about the future, and rightly so—you
had two different candidates who would
deliver very different policy objectives,”
he said, adding, “We now have a positive
yield curve; we have inflation, which is
very good for the hospitality industry;
we’re still seeing attractive acquisition
opportunities—I do have an overall opti-
mistic view going forward… We’re going
to do what we can to make the best of
that growth and selectively add to our
portfolio.” HB
Richard Stockton
Ashford Hospitality Prime, Inc.
“If you’re going to
be a good leader,
you have to gain
the respect of the
people you’re
managing.”