Recently appointed Meyer Jabara Hotels (MJ) Chief Investment Officer Ian McAuley comes to this newly crafted position with 30 years of experience and relationships that, coupled with those of this closely held private hotel company, will further MJ’s expansion goals. As McAuley shared with LODGING, he plans to pursue these goals by first familiarizing himself with his new company—its people, culture, and partners—well enough to fashion and convey to potential investors a compelling story of the differentiators he described, the so-called “secret sauce” that set this 47-year-old family-owned company apart from its competition. McAuley said the timing of the appointment was especially fortuitous, enabling him to attend MJ’s annual executive session, a gathering of some 70 general managers. He also met with the MJ executive and corporate support team, which was important because, like every other aspect of the hotel business, the real estate segment on which he focuses is “a people business,” he explained.
As part of his “due diligence” prior to accepting the position, McAuley pieced together the story of the company he was considering joining. What he learned was that, apart from the health of its balance sheet and strength of relationships built in the business community over three generations, employee turnover among corporate staff and on-property team members was exceptionally low. He found that heartening, given that he would need to relocate from Canada. “I met executives that had been there for years—some, 20 or more, which is unusual in the hotel management business.”
In fact, McAuley called himself “a manifestation of Justin’s goal to expand the company, grow through acquisitions, and become more institutionalized in its development.” That goal and the search for a CIO to head it up was on Justin Jabara’s mind when he assumed the presidency of his family’s company in January 2020. However, the pandemic brought new challenges. Jabara said he was considering the company’s future, asking: “How do we augment and position the company, while doubling down on our culture and remaining privately held? How do we position ourselves for another 47 years?” It was during COVID that, thanks to a healthy balance sheet and support from the principals, he began preparing for the future in earnest. “I determined then that we needed to come out of COVID a better company, not a battered company. Everything that we did during that time was to ensure that when we exited COVID, we were positioned not just for what the industry was, but where the industry is going. We were betting on the future.” Late in 2022, he launched the search for someone to lead the investment side of MJ’s business.
Neither the offer nor the decision to accept it was made lightly. Jabara had considered many candidates in his search for one with the right experience and skills. What he saw in McAuley was “the rainmaker we have been searching for well over a year”—one who “spent his career raising capital, has operated hotels, and knows where the money is made.” Tipping the scales for McAuley were his confidence in MJ’s management, their shared vision for the company, and his belief that he’d be supported in his efforts to successfully pursue the capital market opportunities he identified.
Both McAuley and Jabara agree that building the relationships and a compelling story is best done carefully and deliberately. For that reason, McAuley’s short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals will progress as follows: first, “getting to know the people, culture, and operating practices that drive margins and reap investment returns”; next, approaching the investment community already familiar with MJ to secure sources of capital; and then, seeking out new capital partners, introducing them to the company’s fundamental principles and assets, and determining whether their companies are sufficiently aligned to form a successful partnership. McAuley described “a different mindset for growth” at MJ, saying, “There is no rush to monetize the assets or sell off properties; no gun to my head to get deals done.” Just as they were willing to wait for the right chief investment officer, he said, their objective—and his—is to establish the kind of lasting partnerships that will sustain MJ for the generations to come.
