Michael Wilkins
General Partner Co-Founder
Genares Worldwide Reservations Systems
Michael Wilkins started a long career in the hotel industry in 1976 Co-Owner for the first all-suite hotel chain, at the time known as the Lexington Apartments and Motor Inns. The chain grew from a small regional operation with 9 properties to a national brand.
Michael developed over 50 hotels and Apartment houses in six states in the last 25 years. In 1985, the company then became Lexington Hotel Suites & Inns and started its own hotel reservations company in 1990. Michael was Co-Founder & Chairman of the Board for the sister company, known as Lexington Services which became the second largest Worldwide Hotel Reservation System at the time.
By 1992, Lexington Services was being operated on a global basis. Lexington Services was sold to Travel Resources in 1998 for 37.5 million dollars and had a base of almost 4,000 hotels. He has since co-founded a new CRS known as Genares Worldwide Reservation Services, a worldwide reservations provider. He is General Partner in this company along with partners Ricky A. Wilkins and Eugene Harris. Michael is Chairman, CEO, and President of RM Corporation. Mr. Wilkins holds a degree of Bachelor of Business Administration from West Texas State University in Canyon, Texas and his personal accomplishments include membership in several civic, professional, and religious organizations.
Eugene Harris, CHA
President
Eugene Harris started a long career in the hotel industry in 1975 as the Director of Operations for the first all-suite hotel chain, at the time known as the Lexington Services Apartments and Motor Inns. The chain grew from a small regional operation with 9 properties to a national brand.
Eugene Harris was promoted to Vice President of Operations and oversaw the operation of 24 properties in 1985. The company then became Lexington Hotel Suites and Inns and started its own hotel reservations company in 1990. By 1992, the sister company, known as Lexington Services, was being operated on a global basis.
Eugene continues to manage the Lexington Hotel Suites & Inns operation as Senior Vice President. However, he has since co-founded a new GDS system known as Genares Worldwide Reservation Services, a worldwide reservations provider. He is President and owns a 16% share in the company along with partners Ricky A. Wilkins and Michael G. Wilkins.
Lexington Services was sold to Travel Resources in 1998 for 37.5 million dollars and had a base of almost 4,000 hotels.
Ursula E. Rhode, COO
Chief Operating Officer
As Vice President of Global Services, Ursula Rhode is committed to improve product quality and enhanced service to ensure efficient and affordable solutions for Genares member hotels to increase their revenue, contain their costs and extend their property's marketability and industry exposure through the Internet and global distribution channels. Her responsibilities include establishing relationships with Internet partners, travel management companies, travel agents, consortiums, and international wholesalers to ensure that Genares is maximizing the use of continued technical advances and Internet distribution. She oversees the Reservation Sales Center, Global Distribution Department, Account Management, Marketing, Support Services Department and Technology Services Department.
During her nine year tenure at Lexington Services, Ursula served the company and client hotels in several capacities: Executive Director of Marketing, Vice President of Marketing and Data Management, Vice President of Member Services and Vice President of Global Services. Ursula has been in the hospitality industry for 31 years. Prior to joining Lexington Services, Ursula was Director of Customer Service and Director of Sales for Pegasus Hotel Clearing Corporation. Her career began at United Airlines when she was hired as a reservations agent and moved up progressively to customer service agent, tour desk operator, inside sales representative, Apollo service representative and account executive. Following United, Ursula owned and managed her own travel agency, and later became regional manager for System One Travel Resources, and then Director of Sales for Quik Tix, the electronic ticketing network.
Of German descent, Ursula was born and educated in Friedberg, Germany, and attended the Liopa in Bad-Nauheim, West Germany, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business in 1972, with a focus in Communication. She speaks and writes fluent German. Ursula and her husband enjoy skiing, traveling, and being new grandparents. They reside in Southlake, Texas.
Robert Bayless
Chief Technology Officer
Graduated from University of North Texas 1988 with a Bachelor of Science – Business Control Systems
Staff accountant for Lexington Management 1999 were he supported hotel operations and the Property Management System.
Promoted to CIO at Lexington Services and created, developed, and managed the LexSys reservation system which grow to over 4,000 hotels worldwide prior to the sale of the company in 1998. Lexington Services was unique in that it allowed small chains and independent hotels throughout the world to compete with the larger brands in the global reservation systems.
In 1999, Robert was a founding partner of Unirez As VP of Information Technology, he created, developed and managed the HotelFactory reservation platform which had over 8,000 active hotels. HotelFactory was a pioneer in hospitality industry because it was one of the first fully developed web based applications that allowed the hotelier to access and manage virtually all their information via the internet.
After the sale of Unirez in 2003, Robert was brought over to Pegasus Solutions as VP of Reservation Technologies. There he created and developed a sophisticated inventory and availability display that has been widely adopted in the industry.
Robert joined the Genares team in 2009, and has been dedicated to innovation, ensuring the company’s reservation technology leads the industry.
Robert is married, has two daughters and lives on his ranch in North Texas were he grows wine grapes. His other hobbies include astronomy and electric guitar.
Debra Taube
Vice President of Business Development
Debra applies her expertise and wealth of proven strategies within the hospitality industry to Genares. Knowledgeable in both the industry’s latest technology and effective marketing, Taube is committed to leading as Genares continually exceeds revenue expectations for its clientele. Taube joined Genares with over 15 years of sales, marketing and account management experience within travel and hospitality. As a regional vice president of sales and account management for Trust International and Wizcom International, she was responsible for the entire customer sales cycle for the Americas, from marketing and lead generation to contract negotiation, implementation and account management. Products and services supported included Central Reservation System, channel distribution, specialty voice services, and Internet booking engines. Taube’s background also includes serving as vice president of sales and marketing for Travel Tripper that provides a direct booking channel for hotels; vice president of business development and marketing at TravelWerx, a division of CAS Systems of America that provided hospitality CRM tools; director of global business development and director of change management for Carlson Wagonlit Travel; and regional sales manager at American Express Travel. Debra attended the University of Michigan pursing a degree in Business Administration. She enjoys the culinary arts and in her spare time is working on receiving her culinary arts degree from Schoolcraft College a nationally well respected program featuring 4 Master Chef Instructors.
Ray Sims
Vice President of Business Development
Ray Sims began his hotel career in 1975 with Trusthouse Forte Hotels and for twelve years had assignments as General Manager, and Regional General Manager in El Paso, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego and Houston. Additionally, Ray worked as a General Manager for Sunbelt Hotels, Houston, Texas and Breckenridge Hotels, St Louis, Missouri.
In 1990 Ray joined Lexington Hotels & Suites as General Manager of their Houston hotel. In 1992 Ray was moved to Dallas, Texas where he began developing Lexington Services, as Director of Business Development, a leading provider of hotel reservation services worldwide. While at Lexington Services, Ray helped grow the company to over 4,000 hotels using the Lexington central reservation system. In 2004 Eugene Harris, Ric and Michael Wilkins recruited Ray to start a new hotel reservation company, Genares Worldwide Reservations. In the first year of development, Genares has grown to over 1,000 hotels using the Genares system.
Ray attended the University of Texas at El Paso, is married and has two children.
Sara Wilkins
Director of Sales & Marketing
Sara came to Genares in 2008, to leverage her extensive background and passion for hotels with her ability to sell and market products. As the daughter of Mike Wilkins, General Partner Co-Founder of Genares, and a 3rd generation member of the hospitality industry Sara has helped develop the vision for the future of Genares and plans to continue leading the company as it expands within the industry. As an integral part of the Genares Team, Sara is committed to increasing revenue and cutting costs for each of her hotels – providing efficient and affordable solutions to extend each property’s marketability and industry exposure through all channels of distribution. Sara’s excitement and passion for the company can be easily seen by any member of the team, and has played a crucial role in her success. Sara attended Baylor University and enjoys spending time with her family and friends. Her interest in hotels extend beyond her job as she always finds the time to research, discover and enjoy unique properties.
