Gary Saunders - Chairman
A graduate of Vassar College, Gary is responsible for the overall financial management of the Saunders Hotel Group and is Managing Partner of Old Bayside Partners.. He has held a variety of responsibilities in SHG's hotels, including 10 years as General Manager at The Lenox Hotel and President of The Boston Park Plaza Hotel (the US's large independent urban hotel without a casino). Extremely civic minded, Gary is President of the Back Bay Association, Co-chair of the Boston Groundwater Trust, Director of the Executive Committee Member of the National Conference of Community & Justice, and has previously been a director of The Recuperative Center, The Wang Center, and the Boston Museum of Science, among others.

Jeffrey Saunders - President & CEO
Jeffrey graduated in the class of 1979 with a B.S. degree from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. He has responsibility for all areas of management, operations and marketing for each of the Saunders Hotel Group's properties as well as Managing Partner of Old Bayside Partners.. Along with his brother Gary, he has overseen the development and subsequent management of the Comfort Inn and Suites, at Logan Airport, Boston , as well as the redevelopment of the historic Boston Police Headquarters, in Boston's Back Bay area into a luxury boutique hotel His most recent projects include the acquisition and management of the Marriott Residence Inn-Merrimack, New Hampshire, and the 2005 acquisition of the New London Holiday Inn. He is immediate Past Chairman of the Massachusetts Lodging Association, sits on the Executive Committee of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as the Board of Advisors of the School of Hotel Administration at Boston University.
 

Susan da Silva - Vice President, Administration
Susan joined Saunders Hotel Group in 1982 and has held various positions at the Corporate Office, Boston Park Plaza, Lenox and Copley Square hotels. With a degree in Business Administration from Eastern Nazarene, Susan’s entire professional career has focused on the travel industry; she worked in international relations and hotel contracts for the world’s largest travel consortium – Woodside Management Systems, Inc. She also previously handled travel, meetings and special events for the Boston leasing office of Asia’s largest banking institution, Bank of Toyko Mitsubishi. Susan is a member of REFA (Real Estate Finance Assoc.) and has previously been a class instructor for the American Hotel Motel Association’s Educational Institute. She is currently continuing her education at Boston University’s Real Estate School with a focus on Real Estate Analysis and Financing.

Dan Lewis - Vice President of Finance
Dan Lewis started with the Saunders Hotel Group in 1994 as Controller of the Lenox Hotel. And has since grown into the position of Vice President of Finance overseeing the Saunders Hotel Group 7 hotels. In this role, he is responsible in part for developing and overseeing the financial reporting requirements for the Company including, treasury and banking functions & relationships, property tax reporting and compliance, year-end audits, financial coordination of purchasing and selling hotels and working with the ownership and hotel senior management to develop strategies to maximize financial returns. Dan has spent over 20 years in the hospitality industry working for the Sheraton Corporation, Chatham Bars Inn and Corcoran Jenison Companies. Dan is a graduate of Northeastern University, a resident of Boston and is a member of the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals.

John R. Mitchell, CHA - Regional Director of Operations
John is a graduate of Boston University's School of Hospitality Administration, and has 20-years experience in the hotel industry, the last 13 of which have been with the Saunders Hotel Group. After beginning his hotel career at the Copley Plaza Hotel and Boston's Back Bay Hilton, John joined the Saunders Hotel Group as Executive Housekeeper of The Lenox Hotel in 1994, then spent 5-years as Rooms Division Manager of the 4-diamond hotel, before opening the Comfort Inn & Suites Boston/Airport as General Manager in 2000. In 2004, John took on regional management responsibilities, and currently oversees operations at the Hawthorn Suites Alexandria, VA; the Marriott Residence Inn Merrimack, NH; the Hampton Inn Norwood, MA; the Premiere Hotel & Suites in New Haven, CT, in addition to the Comfort Inn & Suites Boston/Airport. John was a recipient of the Massachusetts Lodging Association's Outstanding Lodging General Manager of the Year for 2003, and he is currently a board member of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitor's Bureau.

Lesley Silberstein - Director of Sales and Marketing
Lesley is responsible for Sales and Marketing projects for Saunders Hotel Group. She brings 30 years of industry experience including pre-opening, national sales and on-property sales responsibility with Hilton, Omni and Marriott. Prior to joining Saunders Hotel Group, she was a regional director with TravelCLICK with an emphasis in generating revenue through electronic marketing. Her responsibilities included overseeing the Northeast regional sales effort and starting up TCI, the internet marketing division of TravelCLICK. Lesley graduated in the class of 1978 with a B.S degree from the Cornell University school of Hotel Administration. Lesley is a member on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Hospital League.

Lisa Burns - Director of Marketing Communications
Lisa joined Saunders Hotel Group in 1987 as Advertising Manager at our former property, The Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers. Having previously worked at Berk & Company Advertising Agency, she has managed the marketing efforts for the hotel group, overseeing budgets, media planning, internet and web development and collateral production for the SHG properties. A graduate of Emmanuel College with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management, she is a member of Boston Women’s Communicators.

John Malenfant - Director of Information Technology
Joining the hotel in June of 2006, John is responsible for Information Technology issues, products and services at the hotel level, which includes: providing user training and support of all property/site systems, network enhancements, hardware and software support. John is also responsible for consulting, designing, and implementing solutions to meet property/site business needs through quality business solutions using technology and information. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, John is a member of the Hospitality & Financial Technology Professionals.

Colin O’Donnell - Area Director of Revenue Management
Colin joined The Lenox in February as Director of Revenue Management and was recently promoted to his new revenue management leadership role for the Comfort Inn and Suites, Logan Airport and The Hampton Inn, Norwood, in addition to The Lenox. A graduate of Wheaton College with a degree in History and Political Science, Colin started his hospitality career at The Green Mountain Inn, Stowe Vermont and most recently worked as Revenue Manager and member of the opening team at Jurys Boston Hotel from June, 2004 through January 2007. He has been a member of HSMAI since 2005.

Erin Crowell - Director of Human Resources
Erin joined the Saunders Hotel Group team in 2007 as the Human Resources Manager for The Lenox. She has spent several years in hospitality operations, with a concentration in Food & Beverage, and in recent years focused in Human Resources. A graduate from UMass Amherst, she was recently promoted to Director of Human Resources. In this new role she supports all SHG properties with recruiting, training, benefits, compensation strategies, employee relations, and all aspects of employment law. She periodically teaches classes sponsored by the Massachusetts Lodging Association, and has been a member of the Boston Hotel Human Resources Association since 2004.