ESA promotes next general counsel

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Extended Stay America (ESA) and its paired-share real estate investment trust (Reit), ESH Hospitality (ESH), have promoted Christopher Dekle to serve as the next general counsel and corporate secretary of both companies, effective June 1.

Dekle will succeed John Dent, who has been commuting to Charlotte since his appointment in January 2015, according to the companies. Dent will return to private practice in the Washington, DC area and will remain available to ESA and ESH and their boards of directors.

ESA describes itself as is the largest integrated hotel owner/operator in North America and ESH as the largest lodging Reit in North America by unit and room count, with 598 hotels and roughly 66,000 rooms in the US. ESA manages ESH’s hotel properties in addition to 27 Extended Stay America-branded hotels for third parties.

Dekle joined the companies in 2005 and has since served in positions of increasing responsibility including corporate counsel, assistant general counsel, general counsel and vice president, and most recently as deputy general counsel, vice president and assistant secretary. He was general counsel for Employers Life Insurance Corporation from 2003 to 2005, and before that was in private practice.

Jonathan Halkyard, president and CEO of ESA and ESH, says in a statement: ‘Few if any [individuals] have the depth of institutional knowledge about [ESA] that Christopher Dekle has amassed over the past 13 years, and no one is more qualified to take the helm as the company’s chief legal officer.

‘With Christopher’s appointment, we continue to fill our executive ranks with exceptionally talented individuals with deep understanding of our core business, serving the extended stay guest.’