Hyatt Executive Chairman Pritzker announces retirement over Epstein ties

By Michelle Jamrisko

 

Hyatt Hotels Corp. Executive Chairman Tom Pritzker said he’s retiring from his position at the company and won’t stand for reelection to its board, citing an association with the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

 

“My job and responsibility is to provide good stewardship. That is important to me. Good stewardship includes ensuring a proper transition at Hyatt,” Pritzker said in a news release on Monday from the Pritzker Organization. He said he decided to quit the role he’s held since 2004 after discussions with fellow board members. 

 

“Good stewardship also means protecting Hyatt, particularly in the context of my association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell which I deeply regret,” Pritzker said. 

 

 

The board named Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt’s president and CEO, to succeed Pritzker as chairman effective immediately.

 

“I exercised terrible judgment in maintaining contact with them, and there is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner,” Pritzker said. “I condemn the actions and the harm caused by Epstein and Maxwell and I feel deep sorrow for the pain they inflicted on their victims.”

 

In a letter to the board cited in the news release, Pritzker doesn’t mention Epstein but says he will turn 76 in June and that he is “very confident that Hyatt has built the strength and agility to carry on and thrive.”

 

Pritzker is the latest in a string of high-profile business leaders, politicians and other public figures forced to reckon with public attention on their ties with Epstein — and in some cases with each other — as revelations surface in files released by the Department of Justice.

 

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman and CEO of logistics giant DP World, is seen to have traded messages with the convicted pedophile for more than a decade after Epstein was first jailed. 

 

Emails show that Epstein tried to connect bin Sulayem and Pritzker to gin up investment in Dubai, and that he also sought to nurture a business relationship between the DP World executive and Jes Staley, who was then a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase & Co. 

 

Bin Sulayem resigned as DP World’s CEO last week. 

 

Among political elites who have had associations with Epstein, former ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson’s case continues to spur implications. Embattled UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that he would bounce back in the wake of the scandal surrounding his former envoy, which a week ago threatened to sink his premiership.