ALIS Law names Simone Wu for its Lifetime Achievement Award
Simone Wu will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th annual ALIS Law conference. The event runs Sunday and Monday, 24-25 January 2027, in Los Angeles. ALIS Law announced the award in a release dated 24 September 2026.
The organisers describe the honour as recognition for a person who has made significant strides in the legal field as it relates to investment and development transaction processes and their post-deal implications.
Fourteen years at Choice Hotels
Wu spent more than 14 years as an executive at Choice Hotels International, the NYSE-listed hospitality company with more than 7,500 hotels worldwide. She was general counsel, corporate secretary and senior vice president of external affairs.
The release states that she advised the board and the chief executive. She led legal, governance, board operations, compliance, risk management, government affairs, external communications, corporate events and procurement. Her remit covered the company's frameworks for ethics, crisis management, insider trading, anti-corruption, privacy, cybersecurity and business continuity.
The Radisson Americas acquisition
The release credits Wu with leading some of the company's largest transactions and names one: the 675 million dollar acquisition of Radisson Hotel Group Americas. Choice Hotels announced the deal on 13 June 2022.
Governance work beyond the hotel industry
Wu is an independent director of Alarm.com, the Nasdaq-listed platform for connected properties. She sits on its compensation committee and previously served on its audit committee.
She also sits on the board of Reading is Fundamental, which the release calls the largest and oldest children's literacy non-profit in the United States. The organisation marks its 60th year in 2026.
Earlier legal career
Before Choice Hotels, Wu was general counsel of XO Communications, the Nasdaq-listed telecommunications company later acquired by Verizon. She held business and legal roles at AOL, at MCI Communications and at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Industry and board service
Wu has served on the boards of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the International Franchise Association, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, the American Corporate Counsel Association's National Capital Region and The Inkwell, a non-profit incubator for playwrights.
The release notes recognition from Corporate Counsel Women of Color, the Financial Times, WomenInc., the Washington Business Journal and the National Law Journal.
The organisers' view
Jonathon S. Zink is chief operating officer of The Hotel Investment Group by Northstar, which operates ALIS, ALIS Law and ALIS DESIGN+. He said few legal leaders have had a greater impact on the hospitality industry than Simone Wu.
Zink credits her with combining legal expertise with strategic vision, guiding some of the industry's largest transactions and advancing standards of corporate governance, ethics and leadership.
Conference details
ALIS Law runs on Sunday and Monday, 24-25 January 2027, at the Courtyard/Residence Inn Los Angeles L.A. LIVE. The release calls it the first of three ALIS events that week.
Northstar Travel Group produces ALIS Law in association with the American Hotel & Lodging Association and The Hotel Investment Group by Northstar. Attendees come from the general counsel teams of hotel ownership companies, management companies and brands, along with the law firms that advise them.