John Murphy (Murph) is Principal at Illuminate Hospitality. Prior to founding Illuminate, he founded Evolution Hospitality, a Southern California based hotel management group, in January of 2011, serving as the president and CEO. Under Murph’s leadership, Evolution grew from nine assets at launch to over 100 (75 open, 25 in development) by the end of 2019. Company managed revenue topped a billion dollars, ranking Evolution as one of the top hotel management companies in the US. He also led the creation of Second Wave, an in-house branding, marketing, and ecommerce agency which grew to 45 associates and was focused on maximizing income at the hotel level. In addition to building world-class operational infrastructure and growing the business, Murph and his partners collectively invested in more than 20 hotels through this same period (both acquired and developed assets).

In 2015 Evolution was sold to Aimbridge Hospitality, and Murph oversaw the integration of Evolution as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aimbridge, acting as its West Coast and lifestyle division. In January 2020 Murph set out to partner with T2 Hospitality, an offshoot of Tarsadia Hotels, to create an innovative lifestyle hotel product and brand; as a result, he stepped down and became a strategic advisor to Evolution/Aimbridge where he continued to work with senior leaders to help shape and navigate the ongoing business strategy.

Prior to launching Evolution, Murph led the management division for Tarsadia Hotels, an extremely active and successful hotel ownership group out of Newport Beach, California. Since Tarsadia’s inception, this family office has operated and developed 120 hotels, deploying over $450 million in equity capital across roughly $1 billion of assets.

Murph joined the hotel management business in the 1990s, working in various positions, (including those with significant food and beverage focus) with both Richfield Hospitality Services and Starwood Hotels and Resort.