Jimmy Peña

Jimmy Peña is a hospitality executive, best-selling author, and nonprofit leader whose career spans luxury hotels, estate operations, publishing, and ministry. A graduate of Baylor University and the University of Texas at Tyler, Jimmy launched his career with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company (Spa Division) where he earned the prestigious Leader of the Year Award and served as part of the elite Cobalt Audit Group, shaping service excellence across Forbes 5-Star and AAA 5-Diamond properties.
His career expanded into health and wellness publishing as Worldwide Fitness Editor for Muscle & Fitness and M&F Hers, reaching millions of readers and co-authoring the New York Times bestseller Extra Lean with Mario Lopez. Jimmy later brought his expertise to nonprofit leadership, directing multi-state operations for Joni and Friends and founding Jordan’s House, a first-of-its-kind nonprofit bed & breakfast dedicated to serving parents of children with special needs.

Currently, James serves as Director of Estate Operations for a private, ultra-high-net-worth individual, where he oversees world-class service standards and asset management. Jimmy also provides private consulting to families, estates, and businesses seeking to raise their level of operational excellence, customer service, and cultural identity. Drawing on his Ritz-Carlton training, he helps organizations craft mission, vision, and standards of practice that build lasting workplace excellence.

His work has been recognized with the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Texas at Tyler, national media coverage, and global philanthropic impact, including water projects in Mali, adaptive playground design for special needs children, and wheelchair distribution initiatives in Romania and Brazil.