Mary Lou Pollack

The Alex showcases the finest luxury extended stay suites New York has to offer. Our luxury residential suites in New York outperform the competition every time.  This hotel is also known as one of the best United Nations hotels because of its close proximity to the UN headquarters.

Mary Lou Pollack is the General Manager of the hotel.  She brings over 23 years of experience to the hospitality industry and a pioneering spirit to her role as General Manager of The Alex, Manhattan’s most imaginative hotel.  Mary Lou Pollack shares with owners Izak Senbahar and Simon Elias a common vision for the hotel, which opened in March 2004 in the heart of Midtown and quickly established itself on the city’s luxury hotel scene.

“We set out to create an environment that is as comfortable, soothing and stress-free as it is creative and forward-thinking – a destination that our guests would choose to revisit whenever their travels bring them to Manhattan,” says Mary Lou Pollack.  Before joining The Alex, Pollack served for 16 years with Prime Hospitality Corp., based in Fairfield, New Jersey, most recently as vice president of national sales.  During her three years in that position, she was responsible for sales operations at more than 230 hotels nationwide, opening national sales offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Washington D.C. and New York, and growing national sales for AmeriSuites, a Prime Hospitality Corp. brand, by more than 300 percent.

An industry trailblazer, Mary Lou Pollack holds the distinction of being the first to implement “e-folio,” a paperless expense reporting system created by IBM, which she installed in all AmeriSuites and Wellesley Inn and Suites hotels in 2000.  Mary Lou Pollack began working for Prime Hospitality Corp. in 1987.  She held a variety of positions within the company, including regional vice president of marketing for several portfolios of full-service hotels in major U.S. cities.  She began her career in hospitality at what is now the Marriott East on Lexington Avenue.  A graduate of Duke University, Mary Lou Pollack is a former president and chairman of the board of the New Jersey Travel Industry Association.