CHICAGO Penny Pritzker is no longer considered an independent director of Hyatt Hotels Corp., the publicly traded company that her family controls.
Pritzker was one of eight “independent” directors appointed to Hyatt’s 12-person board of directors upon its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange last year, as required by the exchange. However, several Wall Street analysts questioned whether she was truly independent given her family’s close ties to the company.
Hyatt removed Pritzker’s independent status after she took over as president of a family enterprise that leases to Hyatt its corporate office space in Chicago.
Hyatt disclosed the change in its April proxy statement in late April, but the news was first reported this week by The Wall Street Journal.