MERRILLVILLE, IN— Having started the company as a means of leveraging hospitality experience gained while working for Hyatt Hotels Corp. as well as finding a way to work closely with his father Dean, but not too closely, Bruce White has built privately held White Lodging Services (WLS) Corp. into a hospitality force. But for the long-time chairman and CEO of the owner and operator, based here, it is clearly a labor of love above all things. “I love what I do. I love the hospitality business. I love the operating side of it, the development side of it and the financing side. [With] our size now as we continue to grow and evolve it always presents challenges,” he said. That represents significant growth for WLS, which got its start some 22 years ago with the management of what was at the time a Holiday Inn here. That property has since been converted to a Radisson and remains part of the company’s portfolio. Dean White— who originally owned 35% of the company and was later bought out by Bruce— remains an active investor in the company’s projects. Bruce White noted that his father encouraged him to strike out on his own and he hasn’t looked back. “It was the best thing I ever did. It allowed my Dad and I to work together on many projects and we’ve had tremendous fun. We’ve created an organization that even though he’s not an owner in, he’s quite proud of. And I think many of our values are consistent with his,” he said. Those values include a strong emphasis on customer service and a focus on the big picture, not just immediate returns. It is those values that prompt White to dismiss any notion of becoming a publicly traded company. “No I don’t think we would ever consider it. It would change the character of our organization…Instead of dealing with our associates and our guests and our partners, we would be dealing with Wall Street. It would immediately change the fundamental character and mission of our organization,” White said. Although he has no immediate plans to retire, White acknowledges the company’s long-term mission necessitates a solid succession plan to ensure future success and partnerships. “I’m out asking somebody for a 20- to 40-year [management]agreement. [Owners] may feel we’re capable of everything but if they don’t see that White Lodging is independent of Bruce White, that if I got run over by a truck tomorrow it would go on and continue to grow, prosper and improve, then I think they’d be reluctant to give us that type of long-term commitment,” he said. But White underscored his desire to see the company sustain and ultimately thrive. “My personal objective in terms of being the founding chairman and owning 100% of the company is I’d really like to see it go on. If I didn’t, after we sold [100 hotels] to RLJ Development, we would have written everybody a check and been done with it.”