BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE: RLJ) today announced that Ryan Meliker will be joining the Company as Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations, effective January 17, 2018. Mr. Meliker will report to Leslie D. Hale, the Company’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

“We are excited for Ryan to join the RLJ team. With more than 15 years of experience as a lodging and real estate research analyst, Ryan is well-known and highly regarded by the investment community,” commented Ms. Hale. “Not only does he possess significant lodging industry experience, he also covered RLJ for many years and is very familiar with our assets, business and strategy.”

Most recently, Mr. Meliker was Managing Director at Canaccord Genuity where he was the senior lodging and REIT analyst. Prior to that, he was Managing Director at MLV & Company and was also the lead lodging REIT analyst at Morgan Stanley Equity Research.

About Us

RLJ Lodging Trust is a self-advised, publicly traded real estate investment trust focused on acquiring premium-branded, focused-service and compact full-service hotels. The Company’s portfolio consists of 157 hotels with approximately 30,800 rooms located in 26 states and the District of Columbia and an ownership interest in one unconsolidated hotel with 171 rooms.

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