MILESTONE
TEN YEARS AFTER IPO , HILTON SUCCESS PREDICATED ON STEADY STEWARDSHIP , CLEAR FOCUS
By DAVID EISEN
It ’ s been 16 years since Blackstone acquired Hilton ( back then it was known as Hilton Hotels Corp .), taking it private . In 2013 , Hilton relisted on the New York Stock Exchange under the same HLT ticker it listed under the first time , in 1946 . A lot has changed in the interim for the now McLean , Va . -based hotel company ( it moved to Virginia from Beverly Hills , Calif ., in 2009 ) from 1946 to today and in the 10 years since it returned to the public markets .
The company marked the decade since its IPO on December 11 , 2013 , touting its growth and shareholder returns . Through the change , the one constant has been its CEO , Chris Nassetta , who was tapped by Blackstone to lead the company , poached from real estate investment trust Host Hotels & Resorts , a publicly traded company that buys and sells hotels , where he served as CEO for seven years .
It proved to be one of many wise choices by Jon Gray , president and COO of Blackstone , who convinced Nassetta to take the job . Nassetta has not only overseen the growth in the company , he has changed its culture and unified it . Of the last decade , he said , “ Conrad Hilton built this company on the belief that we could be an engine of opportunity and a beacon of hope all around the world . Guided by that belief , we ’ ve dedicated more than the last decade to reigniting the company ’ s culture and executing on a growth strategy that enabled us to serve more guests , team members , owners , shareholders and partners with our distinctive hospitality .”
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92 hotelsmag . com Jan / Feb 2024