Officially Resignation After Evidence Release
Thomas Pritzker has been executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels since 2004, and he announced on Monday his retirement plan to stop seeking reappointment to the board. Discussions with other board members preceded the resignation.
Recently released evidence established that Pritzker continued to have significant contact with Jeffrey Epstein for years after Epstein entered into a plea deal for sex-related crimes with the federal government. Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008 and died in 2019 while in federal custody awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Pritzker admitted several times throughout his press release to regret about prior relationships with both Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. "My job and responsibility is to beHyatt's new board is dedicated to making the move to a new governance structure successful and to maintain confidentiality of what businesses Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell's businesses do. I want to be very clear about my regrets regarding associations I have had with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 as a result of her (Mrs. Maxwell's) culpability in the actions that brought about recruiting & enticing minors for Mr. Epstein. He condemned Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell and stated, "I wish that I could have distanced myself more from those actions."
In a letter to the board of directors of Hyatt, he stated that the company has remained" in a strong and stable position" at the age of 76 but did not mention anything in the letter that would indicate he had an association with either Mr. Epstein or Ms. Maxwell.
After Mr. Pritzker announced his resignation from the company, the leaders of the company appointed Mark Hoplamazian to succeed him as the chairman of the board of directors to serve as the heir apparent for Mr. Pritzker as the chairman. Mr. Hoplamazian expressed high praise for Mr. Pritzker for the many years of service he provided to the company and stated that Mr. Pritzker making the decision to retire/depart from being a member of the board was indicative of Mr. Pritzker's commitment to serving good governance and the transition from one style of governance to another.
Mr. Pritzker is the son of one of Hyatt's founders (Samuel Pritzker) and has played a significant role in the continued growth of Hyatt hotels throughout the globe. This resignation comes at a key time for both the hospitality industry and all the stakeholders related to Hyatt as the residual impact from the release of documents associated with Mr. Epstein continues.
Recently released documents have provided insight into the number of influential people Jeffrey Epstein has been associated with in business, politics, and academics, thus causing several of the names contained therein to be scrutinized by the news media; however, being identified in the documents does not implicate a person being engaged in any criminal or unethical behavior.
Recently, Kathy Ruemmler, the general counsel for Goldman Sachs, has announced that she has resigned due to the revelation she had an (alleged) close personal relationship with Mr. Epstein, to which she has refuted having knowledge of any unlawful acts Mr. Epstein committed.
Within the last month, Brad Karp, the chairman of Paul Weiss (the largest legal firm in the USA), has also resigned as a result of the release of emails that supposedly indicated he and Mr. Epstein communicated about Mr. Epstein's conviction in 2008 and has stated that he "has never witnessed or participated in any unlawful conduct".
Consequent to the latest news associated with the release of Epstein-related documents, Mr. Pritzker's resignation places him on the same length as many other corporate leader's departures directly tied to reassessing how business executive's relationships with Mr. Epstein are scrutinized based on their connection. Whether the release of these records may or may lead to additional corporate executives being involved in negative publicity as a result of their mention in the previously released records is unclear.
