Maddox at AKA Beverly Hills

The Operator

I Transform Properties Into Institutions.

In markets with challenging labor, limited resources, and economic headwinds, I've built a system that turns underperforming hotels into high-net-worth-worthy magnets — properties that set records and continue to operate at the highest level long after the launch. U.S. News #1 Hotel. Business of the Year in nine months. 25% RevPAR growth. 80% team retention. $1M+ in activation-driven incremental revenue.

I am a relationship-driven operator. I shape unforgettable guest experiences by building teams that take ownership of the product. I've personally managed stays for presidents, international dignitaries, government officials, celebrities, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals — coordinating with the U.S. Secret Service, serving as point for billion-dollar international corporate negotiations, and delivering the absolute discretion and effortless sophistication this clientele demands. I foster elevated service standards through culture, not compliance — because the angels are in the details, and the details only hold when the people delivering them believe in what they're building. I drive performance through visionary leadership rooted in financial discipline. And I build meaningful brand partnerships that extend a property's influence deep into its community.

Carnegie Mellon–trained in experience design with Fortune 50 consulting discipline, I've spent my career doing this at every scale — shaping guest experiences, driving performance, and defining what luxury residential hospitality can be. I'm ready to bring it to one of the world's most celebrated destinations, for one of the most respected families in hospitality. That's the work I do.

Your Posting. My Answer.

Point by Point.

AKA asked for a relationship-driven visionary leader with a passion for delivering unforgettable stays. Here's how I answer — and where on this site to find the proof.

Lead an Award-Winning Team

Award-winning teams are built by leaders who treat the employee experience with the same bespoke intention as the guest experience
Gratitude journaling programs, structured mentorship aligned with high-end MBA curriculum, and individualized development plans for every team member
80% team retention in markets where 50% is the norm — because people don't leave environments where they're genuinely invested in

See: The Luxury Team Experience ↓

Drive Performance

U.S. News #1 Hotel. Business of the Year in nine months. 25% RevPAR growth. 19.6% RGI increase
$290M in assets managed across 900,000 square feet — culture and profitability as the same priority, never competing ones
$1M+ in activation-driven incremental revenue through programming that manufactures demand rather than captures it

See: Six Case Studies ↓

Elevate Brand Partnerships

Built a full 12-month programming calendar around America 250 — twelve themed months, 12+ new community partners, 50+ activations from a single initiative
Transformed a hotel that had lost its community connection into the city's most sought-after gathering place through strategic partnership development
Partnerships aren't logos on a banner — they're the engine that drives cultural relevance and revenue that compounds year over year

See: Partnerships That Become Programming ↓

Define Luxury Residential Hospitality

The Integration — a structured transformation system built on the foundation of AKA's Live It! program, designed for residents who stay weeks or months
At The Warrior, managed 22 luxury loft residences alongside 148 hotel keys — navigating the distinct operational cadence of residents who measure stays in months, not nights. AKA Beverly Hills is 88 units of that same discipline, distilled and elevated
Four tracks: Reflect, Learn, Challenge, Integrate — each one compounding into the calm that only comes from genuine growth
The natural evolution of what AKA has been building for fifteen years — from Live It! to The Makers to Access AKA

See: The Integration ↓

Shape the Guest Experience

In a luxury residence, the experience isn't a checklist — it's a relationship that deepens over time until what a resident feels isn't service, but belonging
A 12-month programming calendar built around AKA's actual assets: a.cinema, Spago, the terrace, The Makers, the neighborhood itself
Fluent in the financial architecture of occupancy-based residential models, extended-stay revenue optimization, and membership economics — where guest lifetime value, not nightly rate, is the metric that matters
Coordinated with the U.S. Secret Service, served as point for billion-dollar international corporate negotiations — the clientele who demand absolute discretion

See: Life at AKA Beverly Hills ↓

Relationship-Driven Visionary Leader

Every property I've transformed started with relationships — with the team, the community, the ownership group, and the guests who would become advocates
Vision without relationships is a deck. Relationships without vision is maintenance. I bring both

See: Four Modalities ↓

Passion for Unforgettable Stays

This website is the proof. I built it because AKA Beverly Hills deserves someone who would

Drive Performance

Six Case Studies

Regional Portfolio Strategy ($290M+)

In 2024, I took the helm at Hotel Julien Dubuque — Iowa's oldest hotel — while simultaneously retained as a strategic consultant for a $250M portfolio across four properties: The Warrior, Hotel St. Louis, Hotel Blackhawk, and The Current Iowa.

The Team: Transitioned from day-to-day operations to coaching General Managers across the portfolio, serving as a liaison between ownership and staff, building the culture infrastructure that would sustain without me in the building.

The Guest: 22 precinct-wide activations designed to manufacture demand rather than capture it — experiences that gave guests a reason to come back before they'd left.

The Friction: Bridged the gap between ownership and operations across 900,000 sq ft of combined real estate — finalizing budgets, protecting partnerships, clearing the path for four leadership teams to execute.

The Asset: 6% TRevPAR increase across the consulting portfolio. Simultaneously drove Hotel Julien to "Business of the Year" status. Proved that experience design is scalable.

U.S. News #1 Hotel in Iowa (2024 & 2025)

The Warrior Hotel was a restored icon — Marriott's Autograph Collection, stunning architecture. But it needed to become a benchmark, not just a building.

The Team: Every department aligned around one shared goal. Culture and performance moved together — not as competing priorities, but as the same thing.

The Guest: Guest satisfaction rose 20 points. Recovery programs transformed feedback into loyalty. Guests didn't just return — they advocated.

The Friction: Labor forecasting tied to occupancy. Menu engineering balancing quality with cost. Systems that let people do their best work without fighting the operation.

The Asset: RevPAR lifted 25%. RGI increased 19.6%. Named Top Hotel in Iowa by U.S. News & World Report — 2024 and 2025. Excellence became habit.

The Community Relaunch (2,000+)

The Warrior Hotel reopened in 2020 — mid-pandemic — and spent two years without a community identity. No local following. No neighborhood connection. When I arrived as AGM in 2022, the building was beautiful. The relationship with its city was nonexistent.

The Team: Gave the team ownership of the relaunch. Every department hosted their own ribbon cutting — spa, restaurant, rooftop bar. The team became the face of the property.

The Guest: We didn't ask how do we get guests? We asked how do we become part of this place? Six weeks of community events turned opening weekend into opening season.

The Friction: Removed every barrier to community access. No gatekeeping, no VIP-only events. Open doors. Free tours. The hotel belonged to the city before it belonged to travelers.

The Asset: 2,000+ people walked through the property in six weeks. Five local press stories. City council began hosting delegations. Community buy-in became the foundation for every dollar that came after.

The Activation Engine ($1M+)

Hotels treat activations as one-offs — a wine dinner here, a holiday party there. No compounding. No system. I built the opposite.

The Team: Gave the team creative ownership over their signature events. When housekeeping designs the holiday party and the bar team creates the cocktail series, they're invested in the outcome — not executing someone else's idea.

The Guest: Three tiers: signature series (weekly recurring), tentpole moments (monthly), and anchor events (seasonal). Guests returned not because we asked them to — but because they knew what was coming next.

The Friction: Built repeatable systems — templates, vendor relationships, marketing cadences — so every activation didn't start from scratch. The system ran itself.

The Asset: $1M+ in activation-driven revenue from 2022–present. Shifted perception from we're here if you need us to you need to be here for this. Hotels stop chasing demand when they learn to manufacture it.

Building Teams That Stay (80%)

Hospitality's retention crisis isn't about pay. It's about meaning. People leave because they don't feel seen, don't see a future, and don't believe their work matters.

The Team: Built the crucible. Multi-layered recognition — monthly, weekly, daily. Career pathing infrastructure. High-potential identification. Mentorship tracks. An environment where people fall in love with the challenge of becoming who they're capable of being.

The Guest: Stable teams mean consistent service. Consistency is what high-net-worth guests notice first — and it's the thing that can't be faked.

The Friction: Removed the obstacles that make people leave — unclear expectations, invisible growth paths, leaders who don't listen. Poured into the cup so the cup could pour into the guest.

The Asset: 80% retention. 24% leadership retention increase. 14 associates mentored to management. Engagement scores jumped 27 points. When the team believes in the mission, the asset performs.

The Confidential Engagement

A major international corporate team — representing a transaction valued in the billions — selected the property for an extended multi-day engagement. The scope required private accommodations, bespoke itinerary management, international travel coordination, multiple on-site activations, client charter meetings, and formal security briefings.

The Team: Prepared every associate who would interact with the engagement — from front desk to housekeeping to F&B. Conducted detailed briefings on protocol, discretion standards, and the specific service expectations of ultra-high-net-worth clientele. Every team member understood that at this level, the difference between good and exceptional is invisible to the guest. They simply feel it.

The Guest: Built a bespoke itinerary from scratch — private meeting spaces configured to specification, curated dining experiences, transportation logistics for international arrivals, and on-site activations designed around the group's specific objectives. Coordinated directly with security teams on property access, perimeter protocols, and communication procedures. The guest experience wasn't a checklist. It was an environment engineered for total focus and total comfort.

The Friction: An engagement of this magnitude introduces complexity at every level — scheduling conflicts, security requirements that alter normal operations, staff who've never operated at this protocol tier. Served as single point of contact between the client's team, security personnel, and hotel operations. Removed every obstacle before it became visible.

The Asset: The engagement was executed flawlessly. The client's team departed with the kind of experience that doesn't generate a review — it generates a relationship. The property demonstrated it could operate at the highest level of discretion and sophistication. That reputation compounds. The next call comes because the last one was perfect.

Relationship-Driven Visionary Leader

Four Modalities. One Integration.

Leadership isn't about managing four different audiences. It's about understanding that employees, guests, yourself, and the asset owner exist in a single system — and that system only works when each one is being served at the level they deserve. This is how I think about the work.

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Employees

You Don't Get What You Want. You Get What You Are.

My job is to pour into the people who are constantly pouring into the guest. Their cup has to be full in order for it to be useful to anybody else. Over ten years, in the most difficult staffing markets in the country, I've built a system where the work itself becomes the crucible for who someone can actually be and become. Not retention programs. Not pizza parties. An environment where people fall in love with the challenge, with ownership, with accountability — steeped in gratitude. When that happens, world-class experiences aren't manufactured. They're inevitable.

Guests

Where You Stay Becomes the Vehicle.

When you can buy anything, the only thing that cannot be truly bought is transformation — and the calm that comes from knowing you've done the work. In a luxury residence — where someone lives for weeks or months — you have an opportunity a three-night hotel stay never has: to integrate change directly into someone's life. Not biohacking. Not wellness packages. Something quieter and more serious. The experience is about arriving at a stillness that can only come from genuine growth. Long-term luxury as a vehicle for that kind of change hasn't been tapped — because it's difficult. That's exactly why it matters.

Myself

Remove All Friction.

I am the vehicle. My role is to lower the friction — the effort required for everyone around me to accomplish their goals. Do more with less. Make it so that the team feels like they're driving something they cannot get anywhere else. The employee's cup is full because I'm pouring into it. The guest's experience is transformative because the team is free to deliver it. I clear the path.

Asset Owner

The Arrow Points Up. It Stretches Into Infinity.

I treat the property as if it were my own. Every idea is baked around profitability first. Profitability makes scalable operations possible. Scalable operations build trust. Trust earns continued investment. And continued investment compounds into something that hasn't been built before. Everything I build stretches forward without limit.

Pour into the team and they pour into the guest. Transform the guest experience and the asset outperforms. Protect the asset and ownership invests deeper. Clear the friction and the entire system accelerates — until what remains is calm. The calm of a property that runs beautifully. The calm of a team that believes in the mission. The calm of a resident who arrived searching and left whole. Four stakeholders. One cycle. One leader holding it together.

Lead an Award-Winning Team

The Luxury Employment Experience

Award-winning teams don't happen by accident. They happen when leaders invest in the employee experience with the same bespoke intention they bring to the guest experience. People who feel genuinely developed, challenged, and valued don't just deliver luxury — they embody it.

Gratitude Journals

Every team member keeps a structured gratitude journal — a daily practice that shifts mindset from task completion to ownership and purpose. It sounds simple. It's transformative. Teams that practice gratitude operate with more patience, more empathy, and more resilience under pressure. The guest feels the difference even if they can't name it. This is the foundation of culture that sustains.

MBA-Aligned Mentorship

A structured mentorship program built on curriculum that mirrors high-end MBA programs — leadership development, financial literacy, strategic thinking, and communication. Every associate has a development pathway that extends beyond their current role. The message is clear: we're not just investing in your performance here. We're investing in who you're becoming. That's the kind of commitment people don't walk away from.

Bespoke Development Plans

No two team members get the same development plan because no two people have the same ambitions. Individualized growth tracks designed around each person's goals, strengths, and areas of opportunity. The same level of personalization we bring to a resident's stay, we bring to our team's career trajectory. 80% retention in markets where 50% is the ceiling. That's the result.

Define Luxury Residential Hospitality

The Integration

In 2009, Larry Korman created Live It! — a program built on a simple, powerful idea: that a stay at AKA could be an opportunity to pursue ambitions, develop new skills, and enrich your life while away from home. It was visionary. And it planted a seed that I believe is ready to become something larger.

When someone stays for weeks or months, you have something a traditional hotel never will: time. Time is the asset. And the opportunity is to build a structured system that uses that time — not just to deliver extraordinary service, but to help someone arrive at a deeper sense of calm. Not the calm of doing nothing. The calm of knowing you did the work. The calm of relief that comes from accomplishing something real and integrating it into your life. The calm of living with peace, gratitude, and accountability.

The Integration is that system — the natural next stage of what Live It! began. Structured transformation tracks that residents opt into during their stay. Not wellness packages. Not concierge recommendations. Serious, curated pathways designed to help someone become who they came here to become — and to leave with something they carry forever.

Reflect

The Foundation Is Stillness.

Before growth, there must be space. For residents who came here to slow down — structured contemplative practices. Journaling frameworks. Guided silence. One-on-one sessions with practitioners. This is where AKA's essence of calm becomes a practice, not just an atmosphere. The luxury isn't the thread count. The luxury is the permission and the structure to go inward.

Learn

New Skills, New Languages, New Disciplines

Partnering with world-class instructors to offer residents structured learning tracks — language immersion, culinary technique, music, art. Not a one-off class. A progression that builds over the length of their stay. Someone arrives speaking no Italian. They leave conversational. This is the spirit Live It! was built on — taken further, made deeper, given structure that compounds.

Challenge

Discipline in Service of Stillness

Curated fitness progressions. Meditation and breathwork tracks that deepen over weeks. Movement practices that build quietly, day by day. Not intensity for its own sake — discipline as a pathway to the kind of calm that only comes from pushing past what was comfortable. The body and mind arrive at stillness through effort. That's the point.

Integrate

The Calm You Take With You.

The final track is about taking everything learned during the stay and weaving it into real life. Coaching sessions. Habit architecture. Transition planning. The goal isn't that someone had a great stay. The goal is that every single day after they leave, they carry with them a sense of peace — the calm that comes from knowing: I did the work. I changed. And I have the power to keep changing.

This isn't wellness tourism. This is the natural evolution of what AKA has been building for fifteen years — from Live It! to The Makers to Access AKA. Each one moved closer to this idea: that where you stay can change who you are. The Integration is the system that makes it real. And it belongs here — at the world's most livable hotel brand.

Elevate Brand Partnerships

Partnerships That Become Programming

Brand partnerships aren't logos on a banner. They're the engine that drives a property's cultural relevance, creates reasons to visit that didn't exist before, and generates revenue that compounds year over year. This is the methodology in action.

America 250 at Hotel Julien Dubuque

When the nation's semiquincentennial presented a once-in-250-years opportunity, I didn't wait for a directive. I built a full-year programming calendar — twelve themed months, each anchored by a community partnership and supported by dozens of activations across F&B, events, and guest experience.

New Beginnings. American Love Stories. Prohibition. Art & Music. Heroes of Service. Road Trip USA. Stars & Stripes. American Pastimes. Labor & Industry. Harvest & Folklore. Gratitude & Gathering. American Traditions. Every month a story. Every story a reason to come back.

The result: a dozen new community partnerships forged in a single year, dozens of new activations that didn't exist before, and a property that went from hosting events to being the cultural anchor of its city.

12 Monthly Themes

12+ New Community
Partners

50+ Activations
Created

The Warrior Hotel Community Relaunch

At The Warrior, the same methodology produced over 2,000 attendees at a single relaunch weekend — transforming a hotel that had lost its community connection into the city's most sought-after gathering place. Ribbon cuttings with the mayor, rooftop events, live music series, and partnerships with local businesses that drove foot traffic both ways. That property became Business of the Year within nine months. Partnerships were the reason.

At AKA Beverly Hills, the methodology translates to a neighborhood that is itself a partnership ecosystem — Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, LACMA, Rodeo Drive flagships, Cedars-Sinai, the Karamoor Estate vintners behind a.vin. The calendar below is the proof: every month built on relationships with institutions that elevate the resident experience while deepening AKA's position in the cultural life of Beverly Hills.

Shape the Guest Experience

Life at AKA Beverly Hills

Not hotel events. Not corporate programming. This is what it feels like to live here — month by month, season by season — when every asset is activated and every experience is designed to compound into something a resident carries with them.

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January

The Season Opens

Awards season fills the Golden Triangle. Private screening series in a.cinema — residents vote on the shortlist, watch the nominees, host post-film conversations. Integration tracks launch for the year: each resident receives a personal intake to select their pathway. New Year intention-setting dinner on the terrace with a journaling facilitator. The year begins with purpose.

February

Intimate Scale

Eight-seat Spago supper club — residents dine with the chef, not just the menu. LACMA after-hours access for AKA residents — a private docent-led evening through the current exhibition. Couples breathwork session on the terrace at sunset. In-suite floral arrangement workshop with a Beverly Hills florist. A month designed around the principle that the most luxurious thing is a small room with the right people in it.

March

The City Comes Alive

Oscar night in the residence — viewing party in a.cinema with Spago-catered service and a ballot pool. Emerging filmmaker conversation series: three LA-based directors screen short works and take questions — honoring the Korman family's belief that film builds empathy and community. Spring terrace reopening: botanical cocktail menu developed with a local mixologist. The neighborhood wakes up. So does the residence.

April

Design & Light

Celebrating the Koning Eizenberg legacy and the Kahn-inspired principle that thoughtful design changes how people live. Architecture walking tour of Beverly Hills — Schindler, Neutra, Lautner — led by an LA architecture critic. Resident conversation: "How the spaces we inhabit shape who we become." The building itself becomes a teacher.

May

The Golden Triangle

Private after-hours access to a Rodeo Drive flagship for AKA residents — personal shopping with a stylist, champagne, no crowds. Wallis Annenberg Center partnership: resident-only pre-show reception for a spring performance. Terrace sunset wine series with a Napa winemaker in residence for the week. The zip code becomes the amenity.

June

The Discipline of Stillness

Integration track spotlight: Challenge. A 30-day guided movement progression on the terrace — residents who complete the full month earn a private session with the instructor. Dawn breathwork series — 6 AM, terrace, no phones. The longest days of the year. The quietest mornings. Stillness earned through effort.

July

Long Days, Open Doors

The pace slows. Outdoor cinema on the terrace — classic California films under the stars with Spago popcorn service and a.vod cocktails. Resident open studio: any resident working on a creative project gets terrace space and a weekly peer share. Fourth of July gathering — not a party, a cookout. Simple, warm, personal. The residence feels like a private retreat in the center of the city. Summer reading exchange in the lobby lounge. The month asks for nothing. It offers everything.

August

The Makers

Celebrating AKA's Makers — the craftspeople behind the brand. The vintners at Karamoor Estate fly in for an a.vin tasting on the terrace — residents hear the story of the vineyard, the soil, the family. The distillers behind a.vod lead a cocktail masterclass. A filmmaker behind a.film screens their work in a.cinema and stays for conversation. Local Beverly Hills artisan showcase in the lobby. Residents don't just consume the brand. They meet the people who built it.

September

Harvest & Return

Wine country day trip — a curated excursion to Santa Ynez or Malibu wine country, exclusively for residents. Fall menu launch: Spago resident preview dinner before the public release. The terrace shifts — cooler evenings, warmer gatherings, fire features lit for the first time since spring. Integration track check-ins: mid-year reflection sessions for residents on longer stays. Resident harvest dinner on the terrace — long table, shared plates, no assigned seating. The community deepens.

October

Culture Season

Wallis Annenberg Center season-opening partnership: backstage access and post-show reception for residents. Private gallery walk: a Beverly Hills gallerist curates a three-stop evening for AKA residents — emerging LA artists, wine at each stop. Literary salon in the lobby lounge — a published author reads and leads conversation. a.cinema film retrospective: a four-week director series curated by a local critic. The cultural calendar of Beverly Hills becomes yours. You don't visit it. You live inside it.

November

Gratitude

Integration track spotlight: Reflect. Guided gratitude journaling series on the terrace — morning light, hot coffee, silence. Resident Thanksgiving gathering — not a banquet, a family meal. Long table on the terrace if the weather holds, lobby lounge if it doesn't. Giving-back partnership with a Beverly Hills community organization — residents contribute time, not just money. The residence pulls inward. Smaller. Warmer. More personal. The people who are here right now are the ones who matter.

December

The Season of Calm

The essence of AKA — escaping chaos and creating calm. No over-programmed holiday spectacle. A single intimate gathering. Personalized gifting service: the concierge team sources one meaningful gift per resident based on what they've learned over the year. Winter wellness reset — a closing Integration session for every resident on a track. New Year's Eve on the terrace: champagne, the Hollywood Hills, and the quiet confidence that comes from knowing you spent a year becoming who you came here to become. The year closes the way it should — in stillness.

The Residence Is the Experience.