Hanley Named To Lead Ramada

PARSIPPANY, NJ— March 18 marked Paul Hanley’s first day on the job as Ramada Franchise Systems’ new president, filling the shoes left by longtime brand president/CEO Steve Belmonte. As Hanley settles in to his new post, his first order of business is “spending time with his franchisees.” “I’m already underway on that,” said Hanley. “I have a lot of initial thoughts and ideas for the brand, but I want to spend time with the franchisees first.” Having formerly headed up Carlson Hospitality’s upscale Regent International chain, and previously serving as an evp for Radisson, Hanley exited the executive ranks at Carlson a few years ago to run the Regent Summerlin in Las Vegas— which has since gone bankrupt and was recently converted to a JW Marriott. For the past year, Hanley has worked as an independent hospitality consultant. “For nearly 30 years, I have been blessed to work with a lot of experienced hotel operations on both the property and corporate level. Because of the amount of experience I have doing what the franchisees do everyday, I understand their business, their concerns, their goals,” he said. As he takes the reigns as the brand’s new president, Hanley plans to continue the initiatives relative to growth and the Ramada Revival that were developed by his predecessor. “I wish Belmonte a lot of success as he goes forward in his career,” he said, adding that he continues to be in contact with the former president as he acclimates himself with the brand. Brought on during Cendant’s ongoing reorganization, which shuffled a majority of the company’s top hospitality executives, Hanley feels that the company’s new structure will be advantageous to his new position. “There are a lot of benefits [to the reorganization],” he said. “It enables me to have access to a lot more Cendant resources, especially people. I have access to the talent and ability of people across the organization, like Joe Kane and others within the internal structure.” While taking time to meet franchisees is a top priority, so is getting to know his executive team, said Hanley. “More than half my time right now is spent meeting people and getting to know the people in the organization that work everyday on behalf of Ramada.”