Jay Jones

Associate Lecturer, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Jay Jones has two degrees from UW-Stout: a bachelor’s General Business Administration (1987) and a master’s in Hospitality and Tourism in 2003. He has been a lecturer at UW-Stout since 2015.

Jay has worked 25-plus years in the hospitality industry, first for the Red Roof Inn Company, followed by the Holiday Corporation when he took a manager position at the Embassy Suites hotel in Bloomington, Minn. 

After Embassy Suites, he ran a sports bar before becoming the resident general manager of the Hotel Normandy in downtown Minneapolis, where he became the Resident General Manager. 

He then became the general manager of a Comfort Suites in Stevens Point, Wis., followed by a Homewood Suites in Madison, Wis., before moving to Memphis, Tenn., to work for Hilton Worldwide for 20 years in several capacities, including in quality assurance and a franchise director for Hilton Garden Inn.

Jay is active in the Boy Scout movement, where he is the Chippewa Valley council commissioner and an executive board member and helps oversee financial activities, program areas, and operational duties of 50-plus unit commissioners and more than 4,000 youth scout and adult volunteers. He also enjoys golf, any outdoor activity and working out.