Halloway Appoints Todd Ruff as Chief Growth Officer
PHILADELPHIA, PA — Halloway, an early-stage, privately-held luxury passenger rail company, today announced the appointment of Todd Ruff as Chief Growth Officer. In this role, Todd will lead Halloway’s growth strategy, driving expansion across routes, partnerships, and the company’s portfolio of luxury rail experiences.
Todd brings more than 20 years of experience across luxury hospitality, branded residential development, and real estate investment. Most recently, he served as Chief Growth Officer of The Estate by sbe, a next-generation luxury longevity hospitality platform founded by Sam Nazarian and Tony Robbins, where he led growth across an integrated portfolio of immersive resorts, residences, and longevity clubs.
Prior to The Estate, Todd held a dual role at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group as Vice President of Development, The Americas, and Group Director of Residences, where he oversaw the full lifecycle of hotel and branded residential projects — from origination and underwriting through construction, pre-opening, and operations. During his tenure, he helped double the Group’s development footprint in the Americas.
Earlier in his career, Todd served as Senior Vice President of Acquisitions at Trinity Hotel Investors, a New York–based private equity hotel real estate investment firm, where he participated in more than $600 million of hotel and resort acquisitions and dispositions. He also advised six of the top ten CMBS and CDO issuers as a hospitality underwriting specialist at Blackheath Financial, and held roles in hotel valuation and advisory at Hotel Consulting International and Fall Creek Partners. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“Todd’s combination of institutional rigor and genuine passion for experiential rail is exactly what this moment calls for,” said Mike Avena, Founder & CEO of Halloway. “We’re building something that hasn’t existed before in American travel, and Todd has spent his career doing exactly that — originating and scaling exceptional hospitality concepts from the ground up.”
Todd’s rare combination of institutional financial expertise and hands-on operational experience makes him exceptionally well suited to accelerate Halloway’s mission: to make extraordinary rail journeys accessible to travelers across North America.
“Rail travel is having a genuine renaissance, and Halloway is uniquely positioned to define what luxury on the rails looks like for a new generation of travelers,” said Todd Ruff, Chief Growth Officer of Halloway. “I’m drawn to businesses that create entirely new categories, and that’s precisely what Halloway is doing. I’m thrilled to be part of it.”
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About Halloway
Halloway is a curated platform dedicated to luxury and experiential rail travel, uniting historic railcars, iconic routes, and bespoke journeys into a seamless booking experience. Through thoughtful curation and elevated service standards, Halloway transforms fragmented rail offerings into a refined ecosystem of modern rail luxury.
Halloway is a service provided by Lunatrain, Inc.
Contacts
Media contact: AllAboard@gohalloway.com
