Leslie D. Hale

RLJ Lodging Trust President and CEO Ross H. Bierkan will retire from the company, effective at the end of the term of his existing employment agreement on August 22. In alignment with the board's executive succession planning, the board of trustees has named Leslie D. Hale as president and CEO, effective August 22. Bierkan will not stand for election at the 2018 annual meeting, and Hale will be nominated for election then.

Hale currently serves as EVP, COO and CFO. The company is working with an executive search firm and will make announcements with respect to the roles of COO and CFO in the near term.

Hale joined RLJ Development LLC, the company's predecessor, in 2005 as its director of real estate and finance and was promoted to VP in 2006. In 2007, she was promoted to CFO and SVP and, in 2013, she was promoted to EVP. In 2016, Hale also took on the role of COO, with the added responsibility for management of the company's operating platform, in addition to overseeing all financial matters. Prior to Hale's tenure at RLJ, she held several positions of increasing responsibility within General Electric Capital Corporation, including VP in the mergers and acquisitions group of GE Commercial Finance and associate director in the strategic capital group of GE Real Estate. Before GE, Hale was an investment banker at Goldman, Sachs & Co.