Search IconA magnifying glass icon.
Search IconA magnifying glass icon.

NEW YORK • NOVEMBER 7th, 2025

Ronnie Bray

Ronnie Bray is the founding principal of Bray Whaler International. She has over 45 years of international and domestic hospitality purchasing experience and has managed more than 450 projects with a dollar volume of nearly $750 million. Some of her projects include: Westin Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois; Westin Copley Place, Boston, Massachusetts; Lansdowne Resort, Leesburg, Virginia; Park Central Hotel, New York; Mitsubishi’s Yokohama Royal Nikko Hotel, Yokohama, Japan; several of Misawa Home’s 330 Hotels, Japan; the Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, California; the Aspen Meadows Hotel for the Aspen Institute, the W Aspen, and the 2000 room Hyatt Regency on Wacker Drive in Chicago. She also managed many prestigious projects for Aspen Skiing Company including the Little Nell Hotel in Aspen, Colorado and The Residences at Snowmass Club in Snowmass, Colorado.

Ms. Bray began her purchasing career in hospitality in 1977 as Vice President of Interiors for Trammell Crow Hotel Development Company for the Anatole Hotel. Her purchasing experience continued as the manager of the Las Vegas office for John Portman Architects/Peachtree Purchasing in Las Vegas, NV, later becoming Executive Vice President of Carver & Associates in Atlanta. Ms. Bray was Director of Purchasing for Victor Huff & Associates in Denver, CO, and Vice President at Richfield Hospitality Services, Inc./RBA Purchasing International, Inc. also in Denver.

In 1986, she formed her own company, Bray Associates, which later became Bray Whaler International.
Over the past 38 years Bray Whaler became one of the largest hospitality procurement firms in the nation procuring more than 4,000 projects valued at over $5.8 billion. Ms. Bray was a co-founder of the Rocky Mountain chapter of NEWH and served as Chapter President. She also participated in Leadership Denver and served on the Customer Experience Boards for the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business.

A Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, she achieved a Master of Arts Degree in Economics, and Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mathematics both from the University of Colorado, Boulder where she graduated with honors, Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Ms. Bray was awarded the Boettcher Foundation Scholarship, Ford Foundations Fellowship, and National Defense Education Fellowship for her academic achievements.

Ronnie taught economics at the M.B.A. program at the University of New Mexico School and at the University of Colorado Economics Institute. She has been an active member of Blankets and Bears, a NEWH project, which benefits the oncology ward at Children’s Hospital, Denver.