Thomas Pritzker Steps Down as Executive Chairman of Hyatt Hotels Over Epstein Ties
Chinese architect Liu Jiakun receives the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize from Thomas Pritzker at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.
Thomas Pritzker, billionaire Chicago business magnate and eldest son of Pritzker Architecture Prize founders Jay and Cindy Pritzker, has retired as executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation due to his associations with late financier and sex trafficker Jefferey Epstein and Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. Pritzker will not seek reelection to Hyatt’s board, which he has served as executive chairman of since 2004.
While Pritzker’s affiliations with Epstein and Maxwell were already known, unredacted documents recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice reveal that he was in frequent contact with Epstein, even after his controversial 2008 plea deal on sex crime charges. Maxwell, a former British socialite who groomed and abused underaged women with Epstein, was convicted in 2021 for sex trafficking and other charges. She is currently serving a 20-year sentence.
“Good stewardship also means protecting Hyatt, particularly in the context of my association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell which I deeply regret,” Pritzker, 75, said in a statement released by the Pritzker Organization, an investment firm that manages the family’s fortune. “I exercised terrible judgment in maintaining contact with them, and there is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner. 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.”
As of this writing, Pritzker, who is the first cousin of Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker, remains listed as the Pritzker Organization’s executive chairman.
An increasing number of prominent business leaders and politicians in the U.S. and abroad have stepped down from their roles in recent weeks as further details about Epstein’s activities come to light. Multiple cabinet members in Donald Trump’s White House with known links to Epstein, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, have not resigned.
Pritzker himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has not been named in any active investigations into Epstein’s crimes. He was previously named in a May 2016 deposition filed under oath by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre in which she claimed that Pritzker was one of the men she was trafficked to have sex with. Pritzker has denied those specific allegations.
Established in 1979, the Pritzker Architecture Prize is a signature program of the Hyatt Foundation. As president of the foundation, Thomas Pritzker has served as the de facto “family face” of the prestigious prize. Jay Pritzker died in 1999 while family matriarch Cindy Pritzker, who remained active with the prize through her later years, died just last year at the age of 101. There has been no indication yet that Thomas Prtizker is stepping down from his involvement with the prize.
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While there is no evidence that Epstein attended any past Pritzker Prize ceremonies, he and Pritzker did exchange emails about invitations to the events, as reported by the New York Times. This includes the 2012 ceremony held in Beijing honoring that year’s laureate, Wang Shu.
If the traditional timing keeps, the 2026 winner of the Pritzker Prize will be announced next month.
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