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 similar to Graduate Resorts, Marine & Garden Resorts & Resorts, Subject & Stream Lodge Co., with the 2025 Pioneer Award. The Award annually acknowledges a person who is taken into account a pioneer of their discipline by making an impressive contribution, achievement, or enchancment within the hospitality trade.
Kristie Dickinson, ISHC Chair and Managing Director/EVP of CHMWarnick, offered Weprin with the award through the convention plenary session. Dickinson later commented, “Ben is a visionary model builder, storyteller, and investor within the hospitality house. He has a stable observe file in uncovering success in area of interest markets that others could have ignored, creating manufacturers similar to Graduate Resorts in college markets, amongst others, which have redefined product sorts via 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 certainly one of 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 for the reason that begin of my actual property profession. It’s an trade the place the whole lot 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 lodges, together with our most up-to-date challenge, Coral Sands Inn & Cottages in Harbour Island. The visionaries on this record, icons like Ian Schrager and Barry Sternlicht, whom I’m lucky to name mentors and mates, 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 trade; contribution to the trade; and private/organizational attributes and qualities adhering to skilled requirements acknowledged and revered by trade friends.
“Ben’s imaginative and prescient for Graduate Resorts exemplifies the pioneering spirit that the award represents along with solidifying the essential affect experience-based properties have had on the general lodge trade,” stated Jeff Higley, President of The BHN Group. “Curating a set of lodges with native significance and nationwide impression is a noteworthy and feat that can 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)