Robert D. Kline '84

Biography

Robert D. Kline is CEO and co-founder of Chartres Lodging Group LLC, a private equity investment firm focused on the lodging sector and founded in 2002. He is also co-chairman of Kokua Hospitality LLC, a lodging management firm specializing in turnarounds. He is widely recognized as a proactive investor and leading asset manager in the lodging industry, with early investments in conference centers, urban hotels and destination resorts.

Kline has led more than $10 billion in transaction activity since beginning his career in 1984 after graduating from the School of Hotel Administration (now the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration) at Cornell University. He played a key role in developing an institutionally recognized asset management platform and is a founding director of the Hospitality Asset Managers Association. He also established a leading lodging investment and asset management advisory practice while at The Yarmouth Group/Lend Lease and has conducted business throughout the United States, Asia, Mexico and Europe.

He previously served as head of acquisitions for Strategic Hotel Capital, where he oversaw the purchase of $2 billion in luxury hotels across three countries. Since 1998, Kline has invested directly as a principal, deploying more than $6 billion of capital on behalf of private investors and institutional funds.

Chartres Lodging has grown into one of the industry’s leading investment firms, investing more than $3.3 billion since 2002 and managing a portfolio of hotels, resorts and conference centers across the United States and Japan. Headquartered in San Francisco, the firm operates offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Scottsdale, St. Louis, Denver and Tokyo. Kokua Hospitality manages approximately 3,000 hotel rooms across the United States.

Kline serves on the advisory boards of Nor1 and the Cornell University Center for Real Estate and Finance, as well as the Dean’s Advisory Board for the Nolan School. He also founded the No Reservations Giving Foundation, a charitable initiative supporting Chartres Lodging and Kokua Hospitality, and serves on the Urban Land Institute’s Hotel Development Council, where he developed the organization’s confidence index.

He is a frequent lecturer and contributor to industry publications, including Hotel Asset Management, and helped lead the Hospitality Asset Managers Association’s international expansion into Japan. He lives in Tiburon, California, with his three children and enjoys mountain climbing, triathlons and scuba diving.