Choice Hotels International Appoints Artificial Intelligence Leader Ali Keshavarz to Board Member | News

Choice Hotels International, Inc., one of the world’s leading lodging franchisors, today announced the appointment of Ali Keshavarz, President and Chief Data & Analytics Officer of CVS Health, to its Board of Directors.

“Ali is a highly talented leader whose experience and expertise in artificial intelligence will further strengthen our Board of Directors as we advance Choice Hotels International’s long-term growth strategy and continue to create value for our franchise owners, guests and shareholders,” said Stewart Bainum Jr., Chairman of the Board of Directors of Choice Hotels International.

“Ali brings a proven track record of leading business data, analytics and AI transformation at scale,” said Dominic Dragisich, interim CEO of Choice Hotels International. “We look forward to benefiting from his unique perspective as we continue to drive growth, improve unit economics for our hotel owners and leverage the power of AI across the business.”

Keshavarz is Chief Data & Analytics Officer of CVS Health, where he leads the data and analytics business strategy and is a key leader in the organization’s AI strategy across all business areas of the company. Previously, he served as Chief Analytics Officer for Aetna and CVS Caremark, where he helped build enterprise data and analytics capabilities at scale. Before joining CVS Health, Keshavarz spent more than a decade at McKinsey, where he advised clients on data-driven transformation and co-founded the company’s healthcare analytics practice. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in mathematics and economics from Northwestern University.