Chicago, Ill. – AJ Capital Partners announced today the hire of a new member to its executive team. Cooper Manning joins the team as Senior Managing Director – Investor Relations, focusing primarily on new business development and managing and curating investor relationships. Cooper will assist in the future growth of the Graduate Hotels portfolio – a hotel collection targeting university-anchored markets across the country that celebrates each town’s unique local culture and history.
“Cooper is a longtime partner and friend of AJCP,” says Ben Weprin, founder and CEO of AJ Capital Partners. “We’ve worked with Cooper together on the Pontchartrain Hotel and Graduate Oxford and from there, it naturally evolved into a more permanent partnership.”
Prior to joining AJ Capital Partners, Cooper worked in institutional equity sales with Howard Weil in New Orleans specializing in the oil and gas business. During his 16 years at Howard Weil, Cooper was integral in positioning the company as a leader in the energy sector. Cooper was involved in the sale of Howard Weil to Scotia Bank in 2012 and remained on through the transition as a partner.
Cooper will continue to reside in New Orleans and will spend time in Chicago at the AJ Capital Partners office. He will remain involved in all of his investment projects in the south, including AJ Capital Partners’ Pontchartrain – an iconic hotel located in New Orleans’ Garden District opening in June 2016. Cooper will also continue to host “The Manning Hour” (minus 58 minutes) on Fox Sports.
