BETHESDA, MD—Tom Baltimore, president/CEO of RLJ Lodging Trust, is resigning from that post to become president/CEO of Hilton Worldwide’s planned hotel REIT.
Robert L. Johnson, executive chairman of the publicly traded company, has accepted Baltimore’s resignation, which is effective May 11.
Baltimore is a cofounder with Johnson in the creation and establishment of RLJ Lodging Trust and has served as its CEO since its IPO in 2011.
The REIT’s board of directors has appointed Ross Bierkan, EVP/chief investment officer, as the interim CEO of RLJ Lodging Trust.
The board has formed a CEO search committee to conduct a search among internal and external candidates to identify and hire a permanent CEO.
During Baltimore’s tenure as CEO, the company has become one of the largest hotel REITs with 125 hotels in 21 states representing some 21,000 rooms with an enterprise value in excess of $4 billion, according to company data.