Jeffrey Wilder, President

As an active hotel broker and asset manager since 1968, Jeff has seen a plethora of market conditions, knows the ins and outs of deal structuring, franchising, financing and operations. He has been involved in the sale, lease or financing of over 350 hotels during his career, ranging locationally from Hawaii to Puerto Rico, Southern California to Maine. From Hyatt to Motel 6, Loew’s to Holiday Inn, 25 units to over 600 units, Jeff has been at the closing table. His knowledge of deal structuring and wide ranging industry contacts are often found to be useful tools that clients and customers alike are invited to take advantage of.

Beginning his career in 1968 under the aegis of industry legend Steve Brener, Jeff went on to become Senior Vice-President of Helmsley-Spear, Inc. where he remained until 1981, honing his skills with Steve as both mentor and business partner. In 1981, Jeff formed his own boutique brokerage firm, Wilder Group, Inc. and it’s successor entity Wilder Group, L.L.C. Since 1981, Jeff has quietly established himself as an industry voice, having authored over 130 columns, on various aspects of Hotel Deal Making and observations on the passing Lodging Industry scene, for the venerable Hotel & Motel Management Magazine under the titles “What’s the Deal” and “On Finance”

During the 1980s and 1990s, some highlights of Jeff’s business and personal career have included:

• His work for the Hotel & Motel Brokers of America (HMBA), the oldest and largest hotel brokerage association in the United States. He has served in a variety of responsible positions at HMBA, as both an elected member of its Board of Directors and its President
• Membership on New York University’s Hospitality Advisory Board and its Executive Committee, which serve as the industry’s guide in NYU’s quest to develop one of the premier undergraduate and graduate school programs in Hospitality Studies in the world at its Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Travel Administration
• Being chosen to author the definitive chapter on Hotel Asset Disposition for the Lodging Industry source book, Hotel Investments: Issues and Perspectives, which has recently been published by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel Motel Association
• Heading a development team that won a statewide RFP in Pennsylvania and developed a $120 million State Correctional Facility for Somerset County, PA—a county in which Jeff operates a 102 unit Holiday Inn. He conceived of the idea as a an economic development project for the community, won enthusiastic local backing for the 450 jobs that the project would create, sourced out the builder, financing source and tenant (the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania). The project is now open and operating
• Running three Marathons, including at New York and Los Angeles, two of which were run in 3:49:56 and 3:50:00
• Partnering with associate Deirdre Murphy to form Wilder Group L.L.C., providing professional hotel brokerage service to owners and customers seeking to facilitate transactions in the hotel industry
• Co-founding Innvest: America’s Hotel On-Line Superstore at http://www.innvest.com. Jeff believes it will revolutionize both deal-making, information-sharing and a broad range of interactive transactional activity in the Lodging Business, truly moving toward an Interactive Global Village that is both highly liquid and extraordinarily efficient.