DiamondRock Hospitality Company announced Jeffrey Donnelly, previously Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Donnelly is expected to join the Company's Board of Directors after the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be held in May. Briony Quinn, previously Senior Vice President and Treasurer, has been named Executive Vice President and Treasurer, succeeding Mr. Donnelly.
Justin Leonard, formerly Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, has been appointed President. Mr. Leonard will maintain his role as Chief Operating Officer and will assume the responsibilities previously overseen by Troy Furbay, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, who is departing the Company. With these changes, which are effective April 15, 2024. Jeffrey J. Donnelly joined DiamondRock as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in August 2019. Prior to joining DiamondRock, Mr. Donnelly was Managing Director of Equity Research at Wells Fargo Securities where he co-founded Wells Fargo's Real Estate & Lodging Equity Research Platform and had direct responsibility for over $45 billion of equity transactions over his 22-year career. Prior to Wells Fargo, Mr. Donnelly was Assistant Vice President at AEW Capital Management, L.P. where he had asset management responsibility for a 15 million square foot diversified commercial real estate portfolio and executed property and capital market transactions exceeding $5 billion. Mr. Donnelly is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Management Accountant (CMA). He earned a B.B.A. in Finance from The George Washington University and is Founder and Trustee of The Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome Children's Foundation (RTSCF), a 501(c)3 foundation. Briony R. Quinn previously served as Senior Vice President and Treasurer of DiamondRock since March 2018. Ms. Quinn joined DiamondRock in 2007 as Assistant Controller and was promoted to Vice President and Corporate Controller in 2008 and to Chief Accounting Officer in 2014. Prior to DiamondRock, Ms. Quinn was the Vice President of Finance and Accounting for Meristar Hospitality Corporation, a publicly-traded lodging real estate investment trust. She previously held roles at a number of audit and consulting firms, including Arthur Andersen and Beers & Cutler. Ms. Quinn is a former certified public accountant. She holds a B.S in Accounting with a minor in Finance from Providence College. Justin L. Leonard joined DiamondRock as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in July 2022. Prior to joining DiamondRock, he was at Walton Street Capital for 23 years, most recently as a Senior Principal where he was responsible for the oversight of the firm's hotel investments. During his tenure at Walton Street, Mr. Leonard was involved in over $3 billion in hospitality transactions and directed the asset management of 60 branded and independent hotels totaling over 20,000 rooms. Mr. Leonard holds a B.B.A. in Real Estate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.