Destination Hotels & Resorts

Charles Peck, Taking the Company to New Heights

Media Contacts:
Kristin Yantis Mettler, Malen & Mettler, (775) 831-4422, kmettler@malenandmettler.com 

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – The pioneering spirit of Destination Hotels & Resorts is embodied by its leader, President and Chief Operating Officer Charles Peck, who knows what it is like to be at the top of the world and strives to take his company to similar heights.

Peck knows what it is like to define a goal and set out to achieve it – whether doubling his company’s size or climbing the world’s tallest mountains. An avid mountaineer, Peck participated in two expeditions on Mount Everest and takes on daily challenges with the focus and vigor needed to reach the highest of goals.

On a daily basis, Peck oversees the company’s portfolio of more than 6,000 guest rooms, 11 golf courses and 13 full-service spas in more than 30 locations. For Peck, the people who make up Destination are the company’s most important resource. And, from the top down, more than 8,000 associates are helping realize the company’s vision of developing distinctive, upscale properties with exceptional services. Peck realizes that it takes teamwork to achieve important milestones and attributes much of the company’s success to its associates nationwide.

Growing the company is another key focus for Peck. Destination Hotels & Resorts is undertaking its most aggressive expansion effort in years with three major new resort projects currently under construction. In 2008, the company opened the 139-room Stowe Mountain Lodge in Vermont. Destination also opened the Lodge at Suncadia located in Cle Elum, Wash. in the spring of 2008 and then in 2009 the company’s most ambitious resort development, Terranea, will open. Terranea is a 582-room resort situated on 102 acres along the California coastline just south of Los Angeles in Palos Verdes.

Peck’s years of experience have prepared him for taking the helm at Destination Hotels & Resorts. Prior to moving to Denver to oversee the company, Peck was managing director of Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore., one of the company’s flagship resorts. Under his leadership, Sunriver completed the development of the highly acclaimed Crosswater Golf Community, as well as a complete renovation and market repositioning of the resort.

Previously, during his term at Cushman Realty Corporation, Peck was a founding director, executive vice president and chief financial officer for this diversified national real estate company.

Prior to joining Cushman, Peck was chief financial officer of WED Enterprises, the planning and development subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.  He was involved in the planning of large-scale developments including Epcot Center and the Lake Buena Vista Community at Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland as well as various ski resort projects.

Just as Destination Hotels & Resorts is a company pioneering new territory in independent hospitality management, Peck explores remote parts of the world seeking to meet new challenges and goals. A passionate mountaineer, he co-founded and serves on the board of the American Foundation for International Mountaineering Exploration and Research.  The Foundation sponsored a successful Everest expedition via the North Face in 1991 in which Peck was a climbing member. 

Peck’s professional and personal philosophy dovetail with the Destination Hotels & Resorts guiding principles of nurturing positive relationships and consistently working to balance lives.  He has worked vigorously on behalf of the Boy Scouts, the U.S. Olympic Committee, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Sunriver Music Festival. 

Peck holds a Bachelor of arts degree from Yale University and a master of business administration degree in finance from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. Between college and business school, he served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy for three years. He lives in Denver with his wife and two children. His three older sons are pursuing careers in Chicago, San Francisco, and Auckland, New Zealand.

Destination Hotels & Resorts is a privately held lodging management company headquartered in suburban Denver, Colo. With more than 30 independent, luxury and upscale hotels, resorts and golf clubs, Destination is the fifth largest independent hospitality management company in the country. The company’s portfolio features more than 6,000 guest rooms, 11 golf courses and 13 full-service spas. Destination Hotels & Resorts properties are located in key metropolitan and resort markets including Washington, D.C., Houston, Denver, San Diego, Santa Fe, Aspen, Austin, Phoenix, Portland, Palm Springs, Maui and Lake Tahoe. For more information on the properties in the Destination Hotels & Resorts collection, please visit www.destinationhotels.com.

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For high resolution, downloadable pictures of properties in the Destination Hotels & Resorts collection, please visit www.leonardo.com.