Fred Malek

Fred Malek is Founder and Chairman of Thayer Lodging Group, a private equity firm that has acquired over $3 billion of hotel assets and has consistently earned top returns for investors. Thayer recently acquired the largest independent hotel management company in the world, Interstate Hotels, and in addition to its U.S. interests has three hotel related ventures in China. Mr. Malek is also the Founder and Chairman of Thayer Capital Partners, a Washington D.C. based corporate buy out firm.

In addition to his business activities, Mr. Malek is the 2011 Chairman of the Board of Visitors of West Point, Chairman of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring, Chairman of the Republican Governors Association Executive Roundtable, Founder and Board Member of The American Action Network, Founder and Chairman of the American Action Forum, and Chairman of the American Friends of the Czech Republic. He also serves on the Board of Directors of CB Richard Ellis and Dupont Fabros Technologies where he is Lead Director.

In addition to his business career, Mr. Malek has served as an advisor to four U.S. Presidents. He entered government as Deputy Undersecretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. He later became Special Assistant to the President of the United States, and Deputy Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under Presidents Nixon and Ford. Mr. Malek advised President Reagan as a member of the executive committee of the President’s Council on Cost Control, as a member of the President’s Commission on Private Sector Initiatives, and as a member of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. More recently, he served President Bush as Director of the 1988 Republican Convention, as Director of the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations, with the lifetime rank of Ambassador, and as Campaign Manager for President Bush during 1992. Mr. Malek served as National Finance Chairman for the 2008 McCain Presidential Campaign and in 2008 was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Mr. Malek is a graduate of West Point and the Harvard Business School, and was an Army Airborne Ranger serving with a Special Forces (Green Beret) team in Vietnam. He resides with his wife in McLean, Virginia, and is the proud parent of two children and grandfather of five. Besides family, his passions include biking, hiking, and cross country skiing.