
Phillip H McNeill, Jr
Executive Chairman of McNeill Investment Group

Mark Ricketts
Chief Culture Officer, McNeill Hotel Company

Chris Ropko
Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer of McNeill Investment Group

Travis Murray
President, McNeill Hotel Company

Larry Mills
Executive Vice President, Finance

Brent McDowell
Executive Vice President, Business Development

Lindsey Chang
Executive Vice President, Investments

Valerie Chabot
Vice President of Accounting

Valerie Bolton
Executive Vice President, Human Resources

Kim Knop
Vice President - Sales & Marketing

Jennifer Driscoll
Vice President - Revenue Management

Jason Ward
Vice President, Asset Management

Mark M. Layne, CPA
Chief Accounting Officer

Scott Norris
Regional Director of Sales

Kenneth Parish
Director of E-Commerce / Sales Support

Phillip H McNeill, Jr
Executive Chairman of McNeill Investment Group
Phillip McNeill, Jr serves as Executive Chairman of McNeill Investment Group. Previously he was CEO of McNeill Hotel Company which he founded in 2014. He was formerly Executive Vice President of Equity Inns, a publicly traded (NYSE) Real Estate Investment Trust, involved in growing the company from 8 hotels valued at $40 million to a portfolio of 138 hotels which was sold to a real estate fund of Goldman Sachs for $2.2 billion. He has held senior executive positions in the hospitality group of Goldman Sachs and Pillar Hotel and Resorts. Mr. McNeill has over 30 years of experience in real estate development, management and construction across various asset classes. He recently served on the Marriott Courtyard Design and Construction Committee formed to reimage the Courtyard guestroom.

Mark Ricketts
Chief Culture Officer, McNeill Hotel Company
Mark Ricketts serves as Chief Culture Officer of McNeill Hotel Company. Prior to joining McNeill Hotel Company, Mr. Ricketts spent the last seven years serving as Vice President in the Realty Management Division for Goldman Sachs in Irving, TX. In his capacity, Ricketts provided hotel asset management oversight for a portfolio of over 300 properties, spanning 10 brands and 27 flags. Mark has nearly 35 years of experience in the hotel industry. He previously worked as Vice President of Asset Management for Equity Inns, Inc., a publicly traded Hotel REIT based in Germantown, TN. Prior to Equity Inns, Mr. Ricketts served as the Vice President of Hotel Operations for Memphis, TN based MASTER Hospitality Services. In his role, the company received the prestigious “Partnership Circle Award” from Marriott International. Mr. Ricketts was recently named to serve on the Hilton Home 2 Suites Owner Advisory Council (OAC). In addition, Mark has served on the Hampton Brand Operations Council since 2000 and was a past member of the Hyatt Place Operations Advisory Committee. Ricketts previously served on the Board of Directors for both the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau and Memphis Hotel & Lodging Association from 2000-2008.
LinkedIn

Chris Ropko
Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer of McNeill Investment Group

Travis Murray
President, McNeill Hotel Company

Larry Mills
Executive Vice President, Finance

Brent McDowell
Executive Vice President, Business Development
Mr. McDowell joins McNeill Hotels after serving as Vice President of Pillar Hotels & Resorts Construction. In this role, he provided direction for a team of 4 project managers and was responsible for the strategic capital planning and execution of capital expenditures for a portfolio of over 300 hotels encompassing brands from 10 hotel brands. This team executed capital projects averaging $80 million dollars per year with scopes ranging from emergency capital items to change of ownership PIPs and cyclical renovations. Mr. McDowell also worked with Pillar Hotels and Resorts in the role of Regional Director of Operations overseeing the day-to-day operations of multiple units consisting of Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt select service brands. Prior to joining Pillar Hotels & Resorts, Mr. McDowell served as Asset Manager in the Realty Management Division for Goldman Sachs providing oversight for nearly 100 properties across multiple brands largely made up of Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt flags. Mr. McDowell has been in the hospitality industry since 1993. While the roles over those 22 years are many, the focus of his efforts was largely related to the Sales, Marketing, and Revenue Management aspects of hotels ranging from suburban select service hotels to large, full-service destination/convention hotels.
LinkedIn

Lindsey Chang
Executive Vice President, Investments
Lindsey joins McNeill Hotel Company after serving as Senior Vice President at RobertDouglas, where she provided capital solutions through debt and equity structuring and investment sales for a wide spectrum of hospitality assets. Prior to joining RobertDouglas, she spent two years working as an underwriter in Wells Fargo Bank’s Hospitality Finance Group, where she underwrote hotels for over $1.5Bn in loan proceeds for refinancing, repositioning, new construction, and note acquisitions. Lindsey holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University.
LinkedIn

Valerie Chabot
Vice President of Accounting

Valerie Bolton
Executive Vice President, Human Resources
Valerie Bolton comes to McNeill Hotel Company with 11 years of hospitality HR experience. Prior to joining McNeill Hotel Company, Valerie was the Director of Recruiting/Human Resources manager for Bowlmor-AMF where she lead a team of 7. Previous to that, Valerie managed the recruiting efforts of over 100 hotels for Pillar Hotels and Resorts. Valerie graduated from University of North Texas with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While attending UNT, Valerie began working at a counseling clinic and realized her talent for helping individuals pursue and achieve their goals. After 5 years of working in the counseling field she transitioned from counseling to recruiting.
LinkedIn

Kim Knop
Vice President - Sales & Marketing
Kim serves as Vice President of Sales & Marketing for McNeill Hotels. Kim joins McNeill with over 30 years of hotel experience in various aspects of Sales and Marketing. She began as a Sales Manager for multiple hotels with Marriott International before joining MASTER Hospitality (a Memphis, TN based hotel and ownership company) as a Regional Director Sales for their four Memphis/Germantown area hotels. Kim moved to Chartwell Hospitality as a Cluster Director of Sales and recently served as an Area Director of Sales for Interstate Hotels & Resorts. During her illustrious career, Kim has been recognized as having the “Sales Team of the Year” on two separate occasions by Marriott International while winning “Director of Sales of the Year” for Chartwell and was recognized this past year by Interstate Hotels as recipient of the “Sales Excellence Award – Top Sales Performer”.
Kim has been an active member of the various communities that she has worked. During her hospitality career, Ms. Knop has served on the Board of Directors for the Germantown TN Chamber of Commerce, the Southaven MS Chamber of Commerce and the Desoto County MS Economic Council. Kim recently served as a Board Member of the Germantown TN Great Hall and Conference Center Commission. She served on the Board for the Mid South Area Business Travel Association (BTA) in 2015.
LinkedIn

Jennifer Driscoll
Vice President - Revenue Management

Jason Ward
Vice President, Asset Management

Mark M. Layne, CPA
Chief Accounting Officer
Mr. Layne has worked with the hospitality industry in various capacities since 1986. He began his career with Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte & Touche) in 1984. While there he served Phillip H. McNeill, Sr who had started McNeill Sullivan Hospitality Corporation which managed hotels throughout the southeast. Mr. Layne worked closely with Equity Inns LP as the company went public in February of 1994 and served the Company until it sold to a Goldman Sachs affiliate in 2008. He was the managing partner of Crain and Company, CPAs until 2004 when he left public practice and started Layne Capital Management and Consulting, Inc. He has served as President of the Tennessee Society of CPAs and was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Tennessee State Board of Accountancy. He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in Business Administration in 1982 and later received his Masters of Accountancy from the University of Tennessee in 1984.

Scott Norris
Regional Director of Sales
