Organizational Design Will Maximize Effectiveness, Innovation,
Customer Focus and Adaptability
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 2, 2012--
Mark Hoplamazian
, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hyatt
Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H), today announced that Hyatt will
realign its corporate and regional operations to enhance organizational
effectiveness and adaptability. The changes are designed to facilitate
rapid innovation and further advance Hyatt toward its goal of becoming
the preferred hospitality brand for associates, guests and hotel owners.
The organizational evolution, expected to be completed by the end of
September 2012, is designed to position Hyatt to adapt quickly and
effectively to guest and hotel owner needs during the expansion and
growth the Company anticipates across all of its brands in multiple
markets over the next several years. “Hyatt has made tremendous progress
in the last few years,” Hoplamazian said. “Since going public in 2009,
we have increased our global brand footprint in many of the world’s most
important markets, have built a pipeline that includes more than 170
executed contracts for new hotels, expanded the engagement of our
associates, improved guest satisfaction in each of our brands, and
realized solid financial results. Looking ahead, we aim to be more
adaptable by pushing more decision-making to those who interact directly
with our guests and hotel owners, better aligning our development and
operating activities in the field and ensuring that all of our critical
functions are properly and efficiently resourced. I believe these
organizational changes will further release our associates’ natural
talent and energy in ways that will continue to increase preference for
our brands.”
As part of the realignment, Hyatt will establish three operating regions
that will be supported by a newly formed Global Operations Center. The
heads of each of the regions and of the Global Operations Center will
report to Hoplamazian. This change reflects the increasing importance of
international markets to the company’s business and its growth plans.
The scope of activities of the operating regions – Asia, the Americas
(includes North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America), and
Europe/Africa/Middle East (EAME) – is being expanded to include
increased responsibility for and involvement in the Company’s
development efforts. The operating regions will draw upon resources,
standards, policies, best practices and tools provided by the Global
Operations Center to support existing hotel needs and future growth.
Each region will contain a full range of functional operational
resources to support the hotel and area-based teams charged with
creating distinctive guest experiences and managing Hyatt’s commercial
needs.
The Global Operations Center will ensure operating efficiency in the
roll-out of new innovations developed at the Company and will unify the
Company’s operations. In addition, the Global Operations Center will
oversee Hyatt’s information technology resources, worldwide sales
organization and call centers and ensure that those resources are
effectively supporting the Company’s needs.
A newly formed Real Estate and Capital Strategy group, reporting to
Hoplamazian, will be responsible for implementing Hyatt’s overall
capital strategy, managing its hotel asset base and providing support to
Hyatt’s development professionals around the world. This group will
bring a comprehensive approach to the Company’s efforts to recycle hotel
real estate assets and to manage capital deployment in furtherance of
its expansion plans. The Real Estate and Capital Strategy group will
oversee all investments made by the Company in hotel properties on a
global basis and pursue new investment models to allow third party
developers to derive more value from their commitment to build
Hyatt-branded hotels.
“We are relentlessly focused on three strategies to achieve our goal to
be the most preferred brand for our associates, our guests and our hotel
owners: generating meaningful career development opportunities for our
associates and future leaders; creating compelling customer experiences
through well-executed innovation; and growing the presence of our brands
around the world – including growth through the use of our capital,”
said Hoplamazian. “I firmly believe that realigning our resources will
allow us to execute faster and more effectively and will enable Hyatt to
enhance its position as a powerful global brand and to deliver
exceptional results.”
Executive Appointments
As Hyatt’s new organizational structure is implemented, there will be
senior management changes.
Harmit J. Singh
, currently the Company’s Executive Vice President, Chief
Financial Officer will continue to serve as Executive Vice President,
Chief Financial Officer until August 15, 2012, and will be an Executive
Vice President of the Company from August 15, 2012 through December 31,
2012, at which time he will pursue other career opportunities. Singh led
Hyatt’s finance function over the past four years and was an integral
member of the team that managed the Company’s initial public offering in
2009. During the remainder of the year, he will participate in the
transition of his responsibilities to his successor. “Harmit has been a
key member of the executive team at Hyatt over the past four years. He
has made important contributions to Hyatt and provided valued guidance
in setting the direction for the Company during a very challenging
industry cycle and through our initial public offering,” said
Hoplamazian. “I am grateful for Harmit’s support through the transition
of his responsibilities. We have built a very strong team in Finance and
I am confident that they will continue to provide great support and
leadership as we move forward.”
The Company has appointed
Gebhard F. Rainer
as Executive Vice President,
Chief Financial Officer of Hyatt effective August 15, 2012. Rainer
currently serves as Managing Director, Europe/Africa/Middle East (EAME)
and has been with Hyatt since 1988. He has held operating and finance
positions at a number of hotels as well as in Hyatt’s corporate office
during his career. Rainer will be based in Chicago. “Gebhard brings a
wealth of knowledge in operations, development and finance to the CFO
position and his global operating background will serve Hyatt well as we
move forward,” said Hoplamazian. “I have known Gebhard for many years,
and I am confident that with his leadership he will make a significant
contribution to Hyatt in his new role.” Rainer’s successor in EAME will
be named at a later date.
Chuck Floyd
will lead the Global Operations Center, based in Chicago.
Floyd has been with Hyatt for more than 30 years and currently serves as
Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer – North America.
Rakesh Sarna
will lead the new Americas region. Sarna has been with
Hyatt for more than 32 years and currently serves as Executive Vice
President, Chief Operating Officer – International.
Steve Haggerty
will lead the new Real Estate and Capital Strategy group.
Haggerty joined Hyatt in 2007 and currently serves as Executive Vice
President, Global Head of Real Estate and Development.
In the new regional structure, the current Asia Pacific and Southwest
Asia operating divisions will be a part of the Asia region under the
oversight of
Larry Tchou
. Tchou will continue to lead the Asia Pacific
area and remain based in Hong Kong.
Peter Fulton
will continue to lead
the Southwest Asia area remaining based in Dubai. Tchou was one of the
first employees of Hyatt in Asia and was instrumental in introducing
Hyatt into mainland China over 27 years ago. Fulton has held numerous
positions around the world during his 27 years with Hyatt.
About Hyatt Hotels Corporation
Hyatt
Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading
global hospitality company with a proud heritage of making guests feel
more than welcome. Thousands of members of the Hyatt family strive to
make a difference in the lives of the guests they encounter every day by
providing authentic hospitality. The Company's subsidiaries manage,
franchise, own and develop hotels and resorts under the Hyatt®,
Park
Hyatt®, Andaz®,
Grand
Hyatt®, Hyatt
Regency®, Hyatt
Place® and
Hyatt
House
TM.
Hyatt House
is changing its brand identity from Hyatt Summerfield Suites®.
Hyatt Residential Group, Inc., a Hyatt Hotels Corporation
subsidiary, develops, operates, markets or licenses Hyatt
ResidencesTM and
Hyatt
Vacation Club®, which is changing its name to Hyatt
Residence ClubTM. As of December 31,
2011, the Company's worldwide portfolio consisted of 483 properties in
45 countries. For more information, please visit www.hyatt.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Forward-Looking Statements in this press release, which are not
historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements
include statements about our plans, strategies, occupancy and ADR
trends, market share, the number of properties we expect to open in the
future, our expected capital expenditures, depreciation and amortization
expense, interest expense and effective tax rate, estimates, financial
performance, prospects or future events and involve known and unknown
risks that are difficult to predict. As a result, our actual results,
performance or achievements may differ materially from those expressed
or implied by these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can
identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “may,”
“could,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “believe,”
“estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “likely,” “will,”
“would” and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the
negative of these terms or similar expressions. Such forward-looking
statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that,
while considered reasonable by us and our management, are inherently
uncertain. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially
from current expectations include, among others, general economic
uncertainty in key global markets, the rate and pace of economic
recovery following economic downturns; levels of spending in business
and leisure segments as well as consumer confidence; declines in
occupancy and average daily rate; our ability to successfully execute
and implement our organizational realignment and the costs associated
with such organizational realignment; loss of key personnel, including
as a result of our organizational realignment; hostilities, including
future terrorist attacks, or fear of hostilities that affect travel;
travel-related accidents; changes in the tastes and preferences of our
customers; relationships with associates and labor unions and changes in
labor law; the financial condition of, and our relationships with,
third-party property owners, franchisees and hospitality venture
partners; if our third-party owners, franchisees or development partners
are unable to access the capital necessary to fund current operations or
implement our plans for growth; risk associated with potential
acquisitions and dispositions and the introduction of new brand
concepts; changes in the competitive environment in our industry and the
markets where we operate; outcomes of legal proceedings; changes in
federal, state, local or foreign tax law; foreign exchange rate
fluctuations or currency restructurings; general volatility of the
capital markets; our ability to access the capital markets; and other
risks discussed in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which
filings are available from the SEC. We caution you not to place undue
reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are made as of the
date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to update
publicly any of these forward-looking statements to reflect actual
results, new information or future events, changes in assumptions or
changes in other factors affecting forward-looking statements, except to
the extent required by applicable laws. If we update one or more
forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that we will
make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking
statements.

Source: Hyatt Hotels Corporation
Hyatt Hotels Corporation
Farley Kern
312.780.5506
farley.kern@hyatt.com