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Jeffrey G. Saunders

Jeff is CEO of Saunders Hotel Group (SHG), a third generation hotel management business based in Boston. SHG owns, operates, and develops properties in the greater Boston market. 

He has worked for over three decades in the hospitality industry. A 1979 graduate of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, he helped build the Saunders Hotel Group into one of Boston’s premier independent lodging companies. Life before SHG included stints at Ritz-Carlton Boston and Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Jeff has responsibility for all areas of planning and operations for SHG properties. With his brother Gary, he developed the Jury’s Hotel, (now the Loews Boston), a luxury boutique hotel in the former Boston Police Headquarters building as well as an award-winning hotel at Logan airport. With a third partner, they are close to breaking ground on a $400M, 33 story mixed-use tower in Boston (148 residences and 147 hotel rooms) and will be the first Raffles (Accor) branded property in North America.

Jeff is Past President of the Massachusetts Lodging Association and served as President of the New England Chapter of the Cornell Hotel Society. He is currently a board member on the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. Jeff sits on the Board of Advisors of the Boston University School of Hospitality Administration and was a delegate at the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism. He is on the Board of the Elizabeth Bishop Wine Resource Center at Boston University (BU), and is the Founder and Past Chair of New England Hotel Lodging Roundtable. He served on the capital campaign committee for Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley. Jeff has been a guest lecturer at BU, Babson College, Cornell, Northeastern University’s Center for Family Business, and has been a panelist at NAIOP and other industry events.

Jeff has been married to Debra for 37 years; they live in Boston and Boca Raton. They have two children, Stephanie (33) and Alexander (31).