Rob Hays is the president and chief executive officer of Ashford Hospitality Trust, a publicly-traded hotel ownership company with 100 hotels across the United States. Hays is also a member of the Board of Directors of Ashford Hospitality Trust. Outside of his professional work, Hays is involved in several charitable, formative and faith organizations. He is the chairman of the board of the Aquinas Institute for Catholic Life at Princeton University. He is a member of the board of directors of the Dallas Forum on Law, Politics and Culture at the University of Dallas as well as the Ethics & Public Policy Center based in Washington, D.C. He is also on the executive committee of the International Business Leaders Advisory Council, an advisory council of global business leaders assisting the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome in the creation of a new school of church management. In Dallas, he co-founded the Business Ethics Forum, which meets quarterly to provide business leaders regular formation in ethics, philosophy, natural law, and Catholic Social Doctrine. He also is the lead organizer for the annual Dallas Successful Fathers Conference, now going into its 22nd year. He and his wife Alicia have hosted nearly 30 lectures in their home, called the Cottonwood Lectures, on topics of faith, family and culture, now going into its seventh year.
Hays earned his A.B. in Politics with a certificate in Political Economy from Princeton University and later studied philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, Italy. Hays and his wife Alicia have been married for 17 years and have six children. They reside in Coppell.