Financial Services >> CEO Interviews >> November 10, 1998
JAMES D. (JIM) CARREKER is Chairman and CEO of Dallas-based Wyndham
International, Inc., the paired operating company of Patriot American
Hospitality, Inc. Responsible for branding and management of owned and
third-party hotels, Wyndham International currently includes 487 owned,
managed, leased or franchised hotels and resorts. When Carreker joined
the Trammell Crow organization as president of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
in 1988, the company owned or managed 18 hotels. He was president and
chief executive officer of both Wyndham Hotels and Trammell Crow Company
from August 1994 to December 1995. In May 1996, Wyndham completed the
company's merger with Patriot American Hospitality, Inc., contributing
106 locations to the companies' portfolio combined. Patriot
American/Wyndham International, whose shares are paired and trade as a
single unit, is the country's largest hotel real estate investment trust
with 105,000 guest rooms, 56,000 employees and systems revenues of $7
billion. Mr. Carreker began his career in retail as a management
trainee with Sanger Harris of Dallas, where he eventually worked his way
up to senior vice president and chief financial officer. From 1984 to
1988, he was president of Burdines, the Florida-based division of
Federated Department Stores. Carreker received his Bachelor of Science
degree in Marketing and his Master of Business Administration in Finance
from Oklahoma State University. He is currently a director of Trammell
Crow Company, Crow Family Holdings and Carreker/Antinori, a management
consulting firm to banks. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute
(ULI) and on the executive board of the Southern Methodist University
Cox School of Business. Profile
history, services, customers, those kinds of things.
Mr. Carreker: Today, Patriot American Hospitality is the
