Hotel management executive and CFO credits JSOM for career prep.
Judy Hendrick, a 1986 MS graduate of the Naveen Jindal School of Management, has received a 2019 Women in Business Award from the Dallas Business Journal. The award recognizes women who are leaders in the North Texas business community. Recipients were honored at an awards event at the Fairmont Dallas hotel on Aug. 21.
Aimbridge Hospitality, where Hendrick serves as executive vice president and chief financial officer, nominated her for the award. Her primary focus at the 800-hotel, $4.8 billion company is mergers and acquisitions, and capital markets. The company has acquired four companies in the past four years.
She also is responsible for the company’s debt and equity capital sourcing and structuring for acquisitions, development and redevelopment of hotels, and management of the financial, cash management and real estate aspects of all properties and partnerships.
Hendrick spent the first 10 years of her career as a commercial bank loan officer with Chase Manhattan, CIBC and First Republic banks. She later joined Wyndham Hotels as director of finance and, after the company went public, became treasurer and chief investment officer. She joined Aimbridge Hospitality in 2008 as chief financial officer.
She credits her experience at the Jindal School with preparing her for a successful career.
“I received some great advice from JSOM early in my career that was instrumental in creating the path that has led to where I am now,” she said. “The finance concentration led to a transition from more general business as a commercial banker in real estate lending, into a corporate finance focus, which led to a treasurer role in a publicly traded company and eventually to chief investment officer. The combination of a background in real estate lending and corporate finance gave me the flexibility to qualify for both career paths.”
Hendrick established the Hazel Elise Rogers Fellowship for Finance at JSOM to honor her mother, and to assist others in realizing their dream of higher education. She also has participated in mentoring initiatives, including hosting a Dinner With 12 Comets, a UT Dallas Office of Development and Alumni relations program that pairs local alumni hosts and students for small, intimate dinner parties.
She serves on the board of the Dallas Regional Chamber Executive Women’s Roundtable and on the American Heart Association Dallas District Board of Directors, and she is chair of the AHA Dallas Go Red for Women 2019-2020 campaigns.
Hendrick said she believes it is important for women to feel that their work life can also play an important role in making a contribution to society. “We established a women’s initiative at Aimbridge. When we surveyed women in the company about what they would like to see offered, the No. 1 answer was opportunities for community service and giving back.”
