Choice Hotels Names Chris Malone Chief Marketing Officer

By: Choice Hotels | 9 Shares 227 Reads

SILVER SPRING, Md., March 10 // PRNewswire-FirstCall // -- Choice Hotels International (NYSE: CHH) today announced that it has named Chris Malone chief marketing officer, with responsibility for the company's global consumer marketing, worldwide travel industry sales, e-commerce and reservations efforts. With over 20 years' marketing experience, Malone has a track record of driving business results and revenues at leading organizations such as Coca-Cola, the National Basketball Association and Procter & Gamble. In this position, Malone reports to Charles A. Ledsinger, Jr., the company's vice chairman and chief executive officer. "We are very excited to add a marketing executive of Chris's caliber to the Choice leadership team," said Ledsinger. "His expertise in developing strong, global brands that resonate with consumers and franchisees alike will be an invaluable asset as we seek to further position our Company for long- term success and drive profitable unit growth in both new and traditional market segments."

Malone most recently served as Senior Vice President, Marketing for ARAMARK Corporation, a multinational food, facility and uniform services enterprise with over $12 billion in revenue annually. His successes during his five years at ARAMARK included adoption of its consumer-focused growth strategy, as well as developing and leading a variety of strategic marketing initiatives that helped establish ARAMARK as the industry leader in growth and brand innovation. Prior to joining ARAMARK, he was a co-founder and principal consultant at Zyman Marketing Group, a marketing strategy consultancy offering brand building, business strategy and growth acceleration services to companies across a number of industries.

Malone holds a BS from the University of Maryland at College Park and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. His direct reports are Bill Carlson, senior vice president, consumer marketing, and Mary Beth Knight, senior vice president, e-Commerce.

About Choice Hotels

Choice Hotels International franchises more than 5,500 hotels, representing more than 450,000 rooms, in the United States and 37 countries and territories. As of December 31, 2007, 1,004 hotels are under development in the United States, representing 79,342 rooms, and an additional 89 hotels, representing 8,640 rooms, are under development in more than 15 countries and territories. The company's Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn brands serve guests worldwide.

Additional corporate information may be found on Choice Hotels Web site, which may be accessed at http://www.choicehotels.com.

Choice Hotels, Choice Hotels International, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn are proprietary trademarks and service marks of Choice Hotels International.

SOURCE Choice Hotels International

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