The Worldwide Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC) in partnership with The Americas Lodging Funding Summit (ALIS) offered Ben Weprin, Founder and CEO of AJ Capital Companions and creator of a number of hospitality manufacturers corresponding to Graduate Inns, Marine & Garden Inns & Resorts, Subject & Stream Lodge Co., with the 2025 Pioneer Award. Every year, the award acknowledges a person thought-about a pioneer of their discipline by making an impressive contribution, achievement, or enchancment within the hospitality business.
Pictured left to proper: Aaron Anderson, ISHC Awards Committee Co-Chair and Contributor, The 26 CO, Andrea Belfanti, CEO ISHC, Ben Weprin, Founder and CEO, AJ Capital Companions, Kristie Dickinson, ISHC Chair and Managing Director/EVP, CHMWarnick, Jeff Higley, ISHC, President, The BHN Group by Northstar
Kristie Dickinson, ISHC Chair and Managing Director/EVP of CHMWarnick, offered Weprin with the award in the course of the convention plenary session. Dickinson later commented, “Ben is a visionary model builder, storyteller, and investor within the hospitality area. He has a strong monitor file in uncovering success in area of interest markets that others might have ignored, creating manufacturers corresponding to Graduate Inns in college markets, amongst others, which have redefined product sorts by extremely experiential choices. Ben is relentless in his pursuit of transformative hospitality investments, making certain that historic and culturally vital properties are revitalized to foster vibrant, community-driven experiences. He’s one among ISHC’s youngest recipients of the Pioneer Award, if not the youngest, and it was an honor to current Ben with this award and interview him on the ALIS Convention.”
“Hospitality has captivated me because the begin of my actual property profession. It’s an business the place every part feels tangible – the human connection, considerate design, authenticity, and placemaking that transforms areas into unforgettable locations,” Weprin notes. “At AJ Capital, we’ve had the privilege of crafting distinctive manufacturers and timeless impartial motels, together with our most up-to-date mission, Coral Sands Inn & Cottages in Harbour Island. The visionaries on this checklist, icons like Ian Schrager and Barry Sternlicht, whom I’m lucky to name mentors and associates, have been a relentless supply of inspiration all through my journey, and I’m honored to face apart them.”
Established in 1996, ISHC Pioneer Award winners are chosen on a foundation of three standards: lively involvement within the hospitality business; contribution to the business; and private/organizational attributes and qualities adhering to skilled requirements acknowledged and revered by business friends.
“Ben’s imaginative and prescient for Graduate Inns exemplifies the pioneering spirit that the award represents along with solidifying the necessary affect experience-based properties have had on the general lodge business,” stated Jeff Higley, President of The BHN Group. “Curating a group of motels with native significance and nationwide impression is a noteworthy and feat that may function inspiration for future lodge trailblazers.”
Previous recipients of the Pioneer Award embody:
- Tracy Prigmore (2024)
- Alejandro Zozaya (2023)
- Peggy Berg (2022)
- Marilyn Carlson Nelson (2020)
- Jack DeBoer (2019)
- Wing T. Chao (2018)
- Ian Schrager (2017)
- Lyndall DeMarco (2016)
- Stephen Kaufer (2015)
- Michael Bedner (2014)
- Steve Rushmore (2013)
- Chip Conley (2012)
- Kathleen Taylor (2011)
- Leland C. Pillsbury (2010)
- J.W. Marriott (2009)
- Jean Gabriel Peres (2008)
- Stanley Selengut (2008)
- Jean-Claude Baumgarten (2007)
- James E. Burba (2007)
- Stelios Haji-Ioannou (2006)
- H.P. Rama (2006)
- Costakis Loizou (2005)
- Barry Sternlicht (2005)
- Christel DeHaan (2004)
- Regis Bulot (2004)
- Invoice Kimpton (2002)
- Jonathan M. Tisch (2001)
- Michael A. Leven (2000)
- Jack Vaughn (1999)
- George Johnson (1998)
- Randell A. Smith (1997)