Craig Mason
Job Title:  
Chief Executive Officer
Hometown:  
Brooklyn, Connecticut
Get To Know:  
What is an interesting fact about yourself?
I grew up on a farm in Connecticut and had never traveled more than 200 miles from my home until I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. There I learned discipline, teamwork and to always push myself to be my best. I traveled to multiple countries during my tour of service and was exposed to new cultures. This inspired me to find an occupation that allowed me to travel and explore the world. Since then, I have traveled to 49 states and over 40 countries. Travel continues to be a resource for idea generation for hotel design, restaurant concepts and looking at problems through a different lens. More importantly, my travel always reminds me to be grateful and proud that I am an American citizen.
Craig Mason is President of Atrium Holding Company and CEO of Atrium Hospitality. Craig is an accomplished senior real estate executive that has developed a diverse skill set in finance, hospitality, portfolio management, business analytics, feasibility and capital investing. He is a strategic and performance focused executive with 30+ years in upscale, upper upscale and luxury hotel asset management. Craig has a track record of developing high performance teams and driving innovation in competitive business situations.
Prior to Atrium, Craig worked as Executive Vice President, Asset Management for CHMWarnick, the leading provider of hotel asset management and owner advisory services in the US. Before joining CHMWarnick, he served as Senior Vice President of Asset Management for Host Hotels & Resorts and had been a senior member of the leadership team for the past 22 years. Craig directly oversaw a team that aggressively asset managed a portfolio of full service hotels in the upper upscale and luxury hotel tiers with multiple brand and franchise operators. Craig is an expert in leveraging brand, property and capex teams to maximize property valuations. His experience included overseeing asset management operations on three continents where he demonstrated his ability to leverage his ingenuity and information resources to create value.
Earlier in his career, Craig served as Senior Vice President of the Carey Winston Company, a full-service commercial real estate firm where he represented numerous institutional clients in the investment, management, and leasing of commercial office and retail properties. Preceding this, he served as Vice President of Asset Management for office and retail properties at The Balcor Company, an American Express real estate subsidiary.
Craig earned his BS degree from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University and graduated with distinction. He holds a MM degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University with a finance and international business duel concentration. He completed a MS in Real Estate at Johns Hopkins University, Carey School of Business. He also completed the Stanford University’s Innovation & Entreprenurial Certification program.
Mr. Mason is a member of the Hotel Asset Management Association where he has served on the board of directors and was a contributing author in the first and second editions of the book “Hotel Asset Management, Principles and Practices.” He is also one of the founders and holders of the Certified Hotel Asset Manager (CHAM) designation. Craig recently served on the AHLA’s Financial Management Committee where he contributed to the publication of the “Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry - 11th Edition”. He has also served on Georgetown University’s inaugural advisory board for the development of the master’s program in Global Hospitality Leadership. Craig represented Host Hotels & Resorts on Marriott’s Rooms Advisory Board and the Marriott US Integration Advisory Board.