Rex Warren
Director of DBA Program College of Hospitality & Business Department of Doctor of Business Administration Providence
Biography
Before joining JWU in 2009, Dr. Warren enjoyed a 30-year career in the hospitality industry, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in the College of Hospitality and Business. In May of 2025 he took on the role of Program Director for the Doctor of Business Administration program.
For 11 years, he served on the senior leadership team for the North America division of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide as Senior Vice President of Finance and CFO. In that role, he was responsible for leading strategic planning, management reporting, and the overall finance and accounting function for Starwood’s owned and managed hotels in North America. During his tenure with Starwood, Dr. Warren served as a senior leader and Master Black Belt of the company’s Six Sigma process improvement initiatives and oversaw the Revenue Management team for the division.
Before joining Starwood, Dr. Warren spent 10 years with Interstate Hotels Corporation as a regional director of Finance for Interstate’s portfolio of managed hotels across all of the major Global Brands and Independent hotels. Before that, 8 years in various management roles in Hilton and Marriott franchised hotels, as well as in mixed-use and vacation ownership developments.
Dr. Warren has served on the adjunct faculty of New York University and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in their Hospitality programs.
Dr. Warren is a Certified Public Accountant (Texas) and a Certified Hospitality Accounting Executive (CHAE). He is a member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA).
Education
PhD, Iowa State University
Ph.D. Hospitality Administrration
MA, University of Nevada Las Vegas
Master of Hospitality Administration
BA, University of Nevada Las Vegas
Hospitality Administration
Certification in Hospitality Business Acumen
HSMAI
Hotel Real Estate and Asset Management
Cornell University
Certified Hospitality Analytics
ALHA
Six Sigma
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
State of Texas
Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE)
AHLA
CITI Certification
Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative
ICHRIE/JWU Case Study of the Year
ICHRIE
Hotel Sales and Marketing Association International
Warren, R. (2017). Occupancy forecasting methods and the use of expert judgement in hotel revenue management. (Dissertation).
Graduate Thesis and Dissertations (Proquest).
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/16238
Warren, R. & Boyland, J. (2016). Hotel benchmarking task force – a case study. (Case).
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Cases, 5(1).
Warren, R. & Boyland, J. (2015). The broken restaurant – a task force case study.. (Case).
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Cases, Vol 4 (2)., 4(2).
Expertise
finance and accounting; strategic planning; revenue management; Six Sigma; organizational behavior and capability