Conference center and hospitality company Dolce Hotels and Resorts has appointed former Wyndham Hotel Group CEO Steven Rudnitsky as its new president and CEO as the brand seeks significant expansion as well as a diversification of its customer base.
Rudnitsky, officially assuming the CEO position on Dec. 8, takes responsibility for developing the company's strategic direction, meeting business objectives and overseeing all company departments. He reports to company chairman and founder Andy Dolce.
Dolce currently manages 23 hotels, resorts and conference centers in the United States, Canada and Europe and plans to double that portfolio within the next five years. Rudnitsky, who also has worked in leadership roles outside the hospitality industry at companies including Kraft, Nabisco and Pillsbury, announced his departure from Wyndham in September.
"This will be a notably different experience," Rudnitsky said. "I've spent my career in public companies. Now, I'll be able to focus energies on longer-term goals without some distractions of quarterly earnings that are a part of publicly traded companies."
Rudnitsky now is charged with driving Dolce's growth plan, which will be underwritten by the company's investors. They include Broadreach Capital Partners, which in 2007 purchased a majority stake in Dolce
(BTNonline, Oct. 8, 2007).Despite the hotel development financing difficulties triggered by the credit crunch, chairman Dolce is confident that the company, with Rudnitsky at the helm, will meet its development goals. The focus will be on gateway U.S. cities where Dolce does not have a presence and expansion in Europe, he said.
"We want to go where our customers are meeting, and it's pretty easy to define those markets," Dolce said. "We're re-establishing ourselves in the U.S. marketplace: We are in Dallas and Austin and would like to be in Houston, we should be in Phoenix, we need a resort property in Miami or Tampa and we could reinforce our position in the Washington, D.C., area. We want to get a large presence in the United Kingdom, particularly in London followed by Manchester, and we're looking at Milan, Vienna and more in Spain and Germany."
Beyond that, Dolce said the company also would be exploring expansion into the Asia/Pacific region, particularly India and China.
The company also can take advantage of the difficult economy to take a more granular look at day-to-day operations to see how to best optimize performance and growth, Rudnitsky said. He plans to spend his first hundred days in office visiting properties, learning how Dolce goes to market on a property-by-property basis and adapting that with his experience. "I've been a brand guy for 20 to 25 years, and combined with what I've learned, I can take the Dolce brand and make it much more powerful than even what it already is," he said.
Part of that strength will come from a drive to take in more business from the leisure travel markets, particularly in such Dolce resort locations as Austin, Paris and Barcelona, Dolce said.
"This is a successful company and clearly an industry leader," Rudnitsky said. "My challenge will be to build on successes to date and be consistent with the company culture. I look forward to working in front and in back of the house to accomplish this."