Tehmina Adaya

Tehmina (Tamie) Adaya is a hotel/real estate manager and music industry entrepreneur in the Los Angeles area.
Early life
Tehmina (Tamie) Adaya is the youngest daughter of real estate tycoon and philanthropist Ahmed Adaya (1927-2006). Tehmina moved to Los Angeles when she was 12 years, attended the Harvard-Westlake School then attended UC Berkeley and UCLA, where she majored in History.
Business ventures
Adaya manages a commercial and real estate portfolio through the Adaya Family Trust. She is the current President and CEO of Hotel Shangri-La in Santa Monica, which is a family owned boutique hotel that was purchased by her father in the 1980s. She took over this position in 2004 and proceeded to re-brand the hotel with an extensive renovation. This remodel has garnered the hotel a number of awards from Oyster.com.
Adaya established the indie music record label So Sweet Records in 2005, which is recognized as a pioneer in the new music industry establishment.
In addition to running the Hotel Shangri-la, as of 2010 she also owns and operates the Santa Monica based artist collective Crown Jewels while simultaneously posting to the travel vertical as a Huffington Post blogger.
Discrimination suit
In 2010, Adaya was sued under California's civil rights law for discrimination based on anti-Semitism. The case alleged that on July 11, 2010, Adaya abruptly halted a charitable event at her hotel's pool organized by the Friends of the Israel Defense Force (FIDF), which was fundraising for the children of fallen IDF soldiers. Adaya purportedly ordered hotel staff to shutdown the event, using anti-Semitic language. A former employee testified that Adaya feared her family, who are Muslim, would disown her if they found out a Jewish event had taken place at the hotel. Adaya reportedly yelled "Get the Jews out of my pool!"
In court documents, Adaya denied any discrimination, and argued that while the group may have thought they had arranged for the party, no agreement had been made with the hotel’s management, and therefore the plaintiffs were trespassing. Adaya rebutted that no space would have been roped off, as the time period of the incident was a prime time for all hotel guests to enjoy the pool space and therefore would not have been reserved for any separate parties.
Adaya denied the charges against her, saying at one point “I did not, how could I? My family knows I have so many Jewish friends.”
After deliberating for a week, a jury found Adaya liable and subject to a financial penalty of an estimated $1.2 Million. At a subsequent hearing, the jury awarded the plaintiffs an addition $400,000 in punitive damages. In reviewing the finding of liability, Judge H. Chester Horn Jr. noted that the jury “has given credence” to the descriptions of her behavior on the day of the event. The awards were made in varying amounts to a group of plaintiffs that included 18 individuals and an events company, Platinum Events, which had worked with the hotel to set up the event.
Ellen Adelman, the hotel’s chief business development officer stated “We’re terribly disappointed in the verdict, and we’re going to appeal” and further stated that Ms. Adaya has “always shown the utmost respect to me as well as to my Jewish colleagues who work at the hotel.”
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Personal life
Adaya resides in Santa Monica, California with her husband and their three children.

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