Kurt Alexander

Running a luxury hotel company has become as much about managing volatility as selling five-star experiences.

Alexander stepped into the top job at Omni Hotels & Resorts in 2022, inheriting a portfolio of more than 50 luxury properties across the U.S. and Canada at a moment when hospitality was emerging from the pandemic into a new set of pressures: rising labor costs, higher interest rates and shifting travel demand. A longtime insider, Alexander had already spent eight years within Omni’s executive ranks, helping shape the company’s playbook before taking the helm.

Omni continues to expand its luxury and resort footprint, often with public-sector participation. In Dallas-Fort Worth, the company developed the Omni Dallas Hotel using $514 million in publicly financed revenue bonds when it opened in 2012. More recently, Omni received $160 million in public funding — including $63 million in grants from the State of Texas — to build the Omni Frisco PGA Resort, which opened in 2023. The company is also receiving public funding for a $217 million expansion of the Omni Fort Worth.

Those projects underscore the scale and complexity of the platform Alexander now leads: a private luxury hotel operator navigating a tough environment while continuing to rely on public funds to underwrite its biggest bets.

— Rachel Stone