Choice Hotels International, Inc., one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors, recently announced that it has named its associate Mark Weiner as the new head of its global sales division. Mr. Weiner previously served as the company’s vice president of customer care and reservations, an area he will continue to lead as well, reporting to the organization’s Senior Vice President of Global Distribution Robert McDowell.

In his new expanded role as vice president of global sales and customer care, Mr. Weiner will lead the company’s worldwide sales efforts. By fully integrating the sales support function throughout the company’s global sales operations around the world, seeking new opportunities for business in a changing environment and continuing to build the global sales function as a competitive advantage for the company, the global sales team, under Mr. Weiner’s leadership, is poised to continue to deliver measurable results to franchisees and help the company achieve its long-term growth targets.

“I believe there are significant opportunities for Choice, its franchisees and consumers through the shared knowledge of a seasoned industry sales and customer care professional like Mark,” said McDowell. “During his time here at Choice, Mark has shown a strong understanding of the company’s strategic and operational needs and tremendous insight and leadership in developing our world-class reservations and customer care organizations, and we look forward to bringing his expertise to our growing global sales division.”

Mr. Weiner joined Choice in 2006, bringing with him a strong track record and extensive background in managing large operational, field-based sales teams that consistently produce measurable results and superior customer service. Prior to joining Choice, he served as vice president of sales and customer care for Travelocity and spent 16 years in a variety of operations, planning and finance positions with Sabre Holdings and AMR, the parent company of American Airlines.

Mr. Weiner holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles and an MBA in finance from New York City University.