Hyatt Hotels chairman Thomas Pritzker steps down over Epstein ties

Pritzker steps down as Hyatt executive chairman, effective immediately, due to his relationship with the late sex offender.Published On 17 Feb 2026Billionaire Thomas J Pritzker has announced that he is retiring as executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation over his long association with sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, which came to light in recently released US Justice Department files.Pritzker, 75, who has served in the role of Hyatt Hotels’ executive chairman since 2004, also said on Monday that he will not seek re-election to the company’s board at its 2026 annual stockholder meeting.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Drone attack on busy market in Sudan kills at least 28list 2 of 3US Homeland Security Department’s funding negotiations stalllist 3 of 3US deploys 100 soldiers to Nigeria as attacks by armed groups surgeend of listIn a letter to the Hyatt board and a related statement, Pritzker expressed deep regret over maintaining contact with Epstein, who took his own life in prison in 2019, and Maxwell, describing it as “terrible judgement”, with no excuse for not distancing himself sooner.“Good stewardship also means protecting Hyatt, particularly in the context of my association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell which I deeply ‌regret,” he said in the statement.“I exercised terrible judgement in maintaining contact with them, and there is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner.”Newly released documents by the Justice Department show that Pritzker had ongoing and regular contact with Epstein for years after the financier’s conviction on sex crime charges in 2008, according to The New York Times.Pritzker is the latest powerful figure facing repercussions after the release of millions of pages of documents showing the depth of Epstein’s network of business, political and cultural elites in the US and around the world.Goldman Sachs chief legal counsel Kathryn Ruemmler resigned last week over her ties to Epstein. Norwegian police said they had conducted searches of properties owned by former Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland as part of a corruption investigation into his connections with the late sex offender.