Mark J French is the Executive Vice President and part-owner of Ponderosa Hotel Management Services, LLC. Mark is responsible for financial reporting to banks and tax authorities, quarterly and annual reports for investors, preparing daily and periodic financial and performance reporting to internal company users and oversees the daily accounting tasks for Ponderosa and its client hotels. Mark is also very actively involved in the development of new business opportunities for Ponderosa and the investors and owners of its client hotels.

Mark has been in the hospitality industry since 1991 where he began with the management team running a hotel and restaurant in Lincoln, Nebraska. Since then, Mark has been involved in the development management of numerous hotel projects in Arizona and New Mexico. Mark partnered with Brad Christensen in 1998 in the formation of Ponderosa Hotel Management Services LLC. Brad and Mark have spearheaded the development and construction of new hotels in Prescott, Arizona and the purchase and substantial renovation of hotels in Flagstaff, Santa Fe, Prescott, and Sierra Vista.

Prior to his career in the hospitality industry, Mark earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of South Dakota in 1982. In 1985 Mark graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of South Dakota School of Law with a Juris Doctorate degree. Mark worked in the area of family law in Minneapolis, Minnesota for two years while attending night classes at the University of Minnesota to earn a Master of Business Administration which he completed in 1988. Mark worked in the tax department of a large CPA firm in downtown Minneapolis from 1987 to 1991 earning his CPA license in 1989.

Mark is very active at his church, Heights Church of Prescott. Mark and his wife Leslie have been licensed foster care providers and also licensed to adopt children through the Arizona Department of Child Safety. They live in Prescott Valley with their five adopted children.