Monty J. Bennett is an American businessman who founded and is the chairman and CEO of Ashford Inc., a publicly-traded hospitality real estate company, listed on the NYSE as AINC.
Ashford family of companies
Ashford provides global asset management, investment management and similar services to clients in the real estate and hospitality sectors. Ashford is the only publicly-traded company in the U.S. that is an asset manager focused exclusively on the hospitality sector. Ashford is the advisor to two real estate investment trusts, both of which are publicly traded: Ashford Hospitality Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts. These two REITS own 135 hotels and have $7.4 billion in assets. Bennett's annual compensation from Ashford was $6,650,000 as of 2015.
Ashford Hospitality Trust
AHT was initially formed in August 2003. When AHT went public, it had six hotels at a total value of $130 million. AHT invests in predominantly upper upscale, full service hotels in the United States. Currently, AHT has over $4 billion in assets. Since 2013, Monty Bennett has been the chairman of the company and previously was the CEO from its inception until 2017.
Braemar Hotels & Resorts
In November 2013, AHT spun out a new real estate investment trust that was initially called Ashford Hospitality Prime. Prime was a new platform for investments focused on high-end and luxury hotels. When it launched, it had 8 hotels worth $1 billion. In April 2018, Ashford Hospitality Prime rebranded itself as Braemar Hotels & Resorts. When Bennett founded the original Ashford company, the name was picked based on a castle in Ireland. The name choice of Braemar is a Scottish castle. Since its inception in 2013, Bennett has been the chairman of Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. and he was the CEO of the company until 2016.
Remington Hotels
In 2019, Ashford purchased its affiliated hotel management company called Remington Hotels.
Remington Hotels was previously owned by Bennett and his father, Archie Bennett Jr. Monty Bennett joined Remington and its predecessor company in 1989.
Premier Project Management
In 2018, Ashford bought its affiliated project management company called Premier Project Management.
In 2011, he received the "Top-Performing CEO" award. The award is given to the top hospitality industry CEO, which is measured based on a blend of shareholder value, CEO compensation, stock appreciation, and company growth. Bennett has run the closing bell at the New York Stock exchange 5 times and is one of only a handful of people that broke the gavel during the closing ceremony. In May 2016, Bennett served as a panelist at a global conference hosted by the Milken Institute. His panel was titled “U.S. Overview: Will Recovery Prevail?” It examined whether the economy's rebound would remain solid in the face of domestic and geopolitical risks and challenges. Bennett is also a member of the advisory board for the Global Hotel Network. He is on the advisory board of Texans for Education Reform. Bennett is a heavy supporter of Texas Congressman Lance Gooden and was the biggest individual donor to his state legislative campaigns. The two jointly own property in Henderson County. In 2011, Gooden assisted Bennett in his fight against the Tarrant Regional Water District, pushing legislation to designate Bennett's 1,000-acre Lazy W Ranch as a municipal utility district and granting immunity from a proposed water pipeline through the property. During the 2018 Republican primary election, Bennett gave maximum individual contributions to Gooden, hosted fundraisers, and provided the majority of the funding for the pro-Gooden super PAC Our Conservative Texas Future.
Deals and disputes
CNL acquisition
In 2007, Ashford Hospitality Trust purchased a portion of a non-traded public REIT called CNL Hotels & Resorts. It purchased 51 hotels for $2.4 billion. The Wall Street Journal called the price that Ashford paid "hefty... it was less on a comparative basis than buyers paid in many other hotel buyouts at the time."
2020 coronavirus pandemic
In the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Ashford laid off or furloughed 95 percent of its 7,000 workers by late March. In addition, one-third of the company's salaried staff was laid off permanently. Bennett forfeited 25% of his 2019 earned bonus, cut his own salary by 20% and later taking his reduced salary in stock only. Because Bennett's firms laid off most of its 7,000 workers, Bennett's companies were the largest known recipient of Paycheck Protection Program funds, receiving at least $100 million in PPP funds through multiple loans, before returning all of the funds because of changing government eligibility requirements.
Personal life
Bennett is married and has four children. He owns a 1,000 acre ranch in east Texas that has been called an "international wildlife preserve." On the property are exotic deer, sheep from almost every continent on the planet, as well as ibex, gemsbok, sable antelope, red kangaroos, and Barasingha deer. Bennett and his companies support numerous charitable organizations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including The Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, Metrocrest Services, the S.M. Wright Foundation and the Special Olympics. Bennett was previously involved in a dispute with Tarrant Regional Water District. The Water District had planned to build a water pipeline through his ranch to serve the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Bennett spent over $235,000 of his own money to support the election of two Tarrant Regional Water District board members. The dispute was eventually settled out of court.
