NEW YORK—Blackstone and its real estate portfolio company, La Quinta Inns & Suites, have added Henry Cisneros, Mit Shah and Alan Bowers to La Quinta’s board of directors.
Cisneros, currently chairman of the CityView companies, has more than 25 years of combined public and private sector experience. He served three terms as a City Council member of San Antonio, TX, and became the city’s first Hispanic-American mayor in 1981. Cisneros also served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration. His other ventures include Cisneros Asset Management Co., a fixed-income management firm, and serving as president/COO of Univision Communications. He currently serves on Univision’s board of directors, is chairman of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, is a member of the advisory boards of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation, and he also serves as an officer of Habitat for Humanity International.
Shah has more than 20 years’ of experience in the lodging industry. He currently serves as CEO/senior managing principal of Noble Investment Group. Shah is president of Marriott International’s MINA board, a member of the owners’ board for Hyatt Hotels Corp. and a board member of the Lodging Industry Real Estate and Finance Advisory Council (IREFAC). Shah also serves as vice chairman and executive committee member of the board of trustees for his alma mater, Wake Forest University, and as a board member for the Wake Forest University Health Sciences. In addition, Shah is an executive committee member of the Woodward Academy governing board and a trustee of the University System of Georgia Foundation.
Bowers has more than 30 years’ of business experience and has been an active member of several boards. Previously, Bowers served as president, CEO and a member of the board of Cape Success, LLC, MarketSource Corp. and MBL Life Assurance Corp. Bowers was formerly a managing partner at Coopers & Lybrand, L.L.P., a predecessor to PricewaterhouseCoopers. He also is a certified public accountant.