David Siegel is Westgate’s Founder, Executive Chairman and President as well as the Chair of its Executive Committee.

A self-made visionary, David Siegel has spent more than forty years developing Central Florida Investments/Westgate Resorts into the largest privately owned company in Central Florida. Under David’s leadership, the Westgate portfolio of companies includes destination timeshare resorts, hotels, casinos, restaurants, water parks, spas, apartments, travel services, sports betting, citrus & land, insurance services and many other ventures throughout the United States.

The Westgate Resorts story began in 1982 when the timeshare titan purchased a prime piece of land in Kissimmee, Florida and transformed it into the Westgate Vacation Villas Resort. Fast forward forty years later and the Westgate empire today boasts more than 15,000 hotel rooms and timeshare villas, twenty-seven stunning resorts in the country’s most sought-after destinations with so much more still to come!

David’s career has been marked by countless awards and accolades including: the ARDA Community Service Award, the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Hall of Fame, Dick Pope Legacy Award, Orlando Business Journal CEO of the Year, the Central Florida Hospitality Hall of Fame and Ernst & Young’s 1996 Entrepreneur of the Year.

David serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Westgate Foundation, founded in 2001 with the mission to strengthen families and communities surrounding Westgate Resorts’ properties. Since then, the Foundation has contributed millions of dollars each year to nonprofit organizations across the country to further this mission. David also serves as the Chairman of the Victoria’s Voice Board of Directors, a charity he founded after the tragic passing of his beloved daughter Victoria “Rikki” Siegel to an accidental drug overdose. The Victoria’s Voice Foundation is one the nation’s leading advocates for drug policy changes, access to Naloxone, drug education and prevention methods. A noted speaker on the topic of drug addiction, David has devoted his life to ensuring no other family shares the same tragedy his family did.

David studied marketing and management at the University of Miami in Miami, Florida and holds an honorary doctorate from Florida A&M University.