The company was founded in 2002 by Rob Kline and Maki Bara.Shortly after it opened shop, the company took on the assetmanagement assignment for a 2,000-room portfolio owned by OxfordCapital Group LLC, a company Kline and Maki had partnered with onother transactions, and changed its name to Oxford Lodging Advisory& Investment Group.

"It made sense at the time," Kline tells GlobeSt.com. "[We andOxford] had acquired properties with large opportunity funds anddidn't want them to think this split we were going through would[have any negative effect] on the investments, so sharing theOxford name made sense."

Six years later, the company has grown into one of theindustry's largest investors, with a 15,600-room portfolio ofluxury and upscale hotels, conference centers and resorts in the USand Japan. Kline and Bara have an interest in 65% of the estimated$5-billion portfolio. The rest of the portfolio is comprised ofassets that its investor partners have asked the company to manageon a fee basis. Kline and Bara also control Kokua Hospitality LLC,which manages the independent hotels in the company'sportfolio.