Meet Our Team
Clancy Cipkala
Senior Managing Partner, President & CEO of Solara Hospitality. A native of Youngstown, OH, he is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and a Master’s in Business Administration. He began his career with Ryan Homes as a sales manager and then spent the next five years at Ford Motor Company as a Zone Manager and was promoted to Product Marketing Manager. He was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a hotel management company with responsibility for over 25 hotels in the Southeast as well as a full-service, in-house advertising agency. He has over 30 years’ experience in hospitality marketing and management and has been involved in the development, acquisitions and management for more than 30 hotel projects. In 2017, he was named Hotelier of the Year by the South Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association. Clancy resides in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a father of three children, Amanda, Haley and Colton, and recently became a proud grandfather.
Andy Briggs, CHA
Senior Vice President of Solara Hospitality overseeing operations & development of all investment holdings as well as Managing Partner. His 26-year career in hospitality started as a banquet waiter at the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center in Boone, NC. A graduate of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, Andy has operated hotels throughout the southeast. In 2006, Andy was certified by American Hotel & Lodging Association as a Certified Hotel Administrator (2011 & 2016) and has consistently served on boards as a director or an officer on the local and state level for tourism and lodging. For the last 15 years, Andy has served as GM at several award-winning properties within Hampton Inn by Hilton (3 consecutive Lighthouse awards), Courtyard by Marriott (Diamond, Platinum, and Gold) and Residence Inn by Marriott (Platinum). He is also certified from Cornell University in Hotel Real Estate Investments and Asset Management as well as Florida Atlantic University in Hospitality and Tourism Management. Each semester Andy also guest lectures at the University of South Carolina College of Hospitality, Restaurant, and Tourism Management and Columbia College’s Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management. He was also featured as a luminary for She Has a Deal Hotel Pitch Competition. Andy has ventured from being an investing member with one of the hotels he was GM and made the move to being a managing partner in the hotels that Solara manages in 2013. Andy and his wife of thirteen years, Stacey, reside in Chapin, SC and have one child.