John Rutledge
Founder, President & CEO, Oxford Capital Group, LLC
Inducted September 26, 2019
“Master Hotel Developer – Renaissance Man”
A Chicago native, former Boy Scout, multi-sport athlete, voracious reader, devoted family man, decathlete in life and master real estate investor, developer and civic leader, John W. Rutledge is the Founder, President and CEO of Oxford Capital Group, LLC, which specializes in large-scale, lifestyle hospitality-oriented real estate, with over $3 billion of transactions including 13,000 hotel rooms, 3,000 senior housing units and 1,000 residential units.
John co-founded Oxford Realty Corporation at age 24. As the real estate markets softened in the early ’90s, he and a colleague merged Oxford Realty into a large national company. Following a trip around the world, he enrolled in business school, where in his second year he co-founded Oxford Capital Partners to take advantage of a compelling opportunity resulting from the overbuilt lodging sector of the property market. He founded his third and fourth successor companies, Oxford Capital Group, LLC, and Oxford Hotels & Resorts, LLC during the mid-2000s.
John’s notable Chicago-area projects include Essex on the Park Luxury Apartments and Hotel Essex, Hotel Julian, LondonHouse Chicago, Godfrey Chicago, Langham Chicago, Hotel Felix, Hotel Cass, Hotel Versey, Claridge House, Hyatt Magnificent Mile, Renaissance North Shore, Doubletree North Shore, Hyatt House Northwest, 10 South LaSalle, One North Franklin and Harpo Studios.
Highly active in Chicago’s philanthropic and business communities, John has been honored with numerous awards, including Crain’s Chicago Business’ “40 under 40” and “Who’s Who,” The Anti-Defamation League’s Arthur Rubloff Humanitarian Award, Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, Young Presidents’ Organization’s (YPO) Stuart Cornew Leadership Award and Urban Land Institute’s Vision Award. His projects have been awarded Development of the Year, Redevelopment of the Year, National Hotel Development of the Year, Top City Hotel in the Continental U.S., National Hotel Transaction of the Year and Historic Redevelopment of the Year, along with Historic Preservation awards from Chicago and Boston.