Chairman, Pyramid Hotel Group
Richard M. Kelleher has founded two hospitality companies in his career and led a total of five. Pyramid Hotel Group (Pyramid), where Kelleher is principal and CEO, is the second of his start-ups. Pyramid is comprised of a portfolio of 100+ lodging properties under management or asset management, including the Boston Harbor Hotel. Pyramid, as published by Hotel Management Magazine in 2017, is the 5th largest hotel management company in the USA. In 1983, Kelleher co-founded Beacon Hotel Corporation, a Boston-based hotel development and management firm that grew to 40 properties in four years.
He directed the company’s growth from its acquisitions of Guest Quarters Suite Hotels, Pickett Suite Hotels and the acquisition of Doubletree Hotels. The newly formed company was renamed Doubletree Hotels Corporation and Kelleher was named President and CEO and took the company public.
Doubletree then merged with the Promus Hotel Corporation with Kelleher as President and COO of the merged company. Under his leadership, Promus expanded to 1,250 properties, including the acquisition of over $5 billion in hotel companies and lodging real estate. At Promus, Kelleher and his senior team raised over $7 billion in debt and over $700 million through equity offerings. This company was eventually sold to Hilton Hotels Corporation.
Kelleher returned to Boston in 1999 to form Pyramid, which since its inception has participated in over $10.0 Billion worth of lodging-related acquisitions and completed over $1.0 Billion worth of hotel development and property renovations as project managers. Kelleher has also served as Chairman of the Legacy Hotel REIT, the largest Canadian hotel REIT, where he led the sale of the company for $2.5 billion in 2007. Pyramid has continuously expanded both its portfolio and its platform and now consists of over 100 hotels.
He has long established local roots, having grown up in Cambridge and Arlington where he graduated high school. After completing active duty in the US Army, he attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and graduated with a degree in Hotel & Restaurant Administration. He also holds graduate degrees from Purdue University (MS) and Johnson & Wales (DBA-Honorary).
Mr. Kelleher has been active in the local community, serving on two hospital boards, two independent school boards, and most recently, as President of the University of Massachusetts Foundation Board which has raised over $350 million for UMass Amherst. He currently serves on the board of the American Hotel and Lodging Association and served as past president of the Education Institute of the AHLA.
Rick is married to Nancy Spilman Kelleher (BS UMass Amherst, 1971) They have four children and nine grandchildren and reside in Duxbury, MA.