DALLAS—Ashford Hospitality Prime, Inc.’s board of directors has appointed Richard J. Stockton as the CEO of the company, effective Nov. 14. Monty J. Bennett, the previous CEO, remains chairman of the board of Ashford Prime.
Stockton spent more than 15 years at Morgan Stanley in real estate investment banking where he rose from an associate to managing director and regional group head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
As co-head of the Asia Pacific Real Estate Banking Group from 2010-2012, Stockton was responsible for a team of more than 20 real estate investment bankers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Mumbai. He left the firm in 2013 to become president & CEO-Americas for OUE Limited, a publicly listed Singaporean property company with more than $5 billion in assets. While there, Stockton negotiated and completed the $367.5-million acquisition of the US Bank Tower, implementing a $50-million-plus repositioning plan that resulted in SkySpace LA—the West Coast’s tallest observation deck, according to the company.
Most recently, Stockton served as global COO, real estate at Carval Investors, a subsidiary of Cargill, where he developed a strategic plan for the real estate business with approximately $1 billion in investments and operations in the U.S., U.K., Canada and France. He was also a member of the global real estate investment committee at Carval, while also overseeing real estate capital formation, marketing and operations.
Stockton has also served on numerous boards during his career including the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association and Los Angeles Downtown Center BID. Currently, he is serving on the board of Watchfacts, Amazon’s exclusive provider of pre-owned luxury watch certifications and warranties. Stockton received an MBA in finance and real estate from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BS from Cornell University, School of Hotel Administration.
“We are extremely pleased, following an extensive search process, to have attracted someone of Richard’s caliber to join our organization,” said Monty J. Bennett, Ashford Prime’s chairman of the board. “Richard brings over 20 years of experience in investing in and financing real estate, and I am confident that his expertise will be extremely valuable to us as we continue to execute on our strategic initiatives in order to maximize long-term shareholder value.”