Jeff Zidell leaving Hyatt
 

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...stepping-down/

Not unexpected given what's going on recently.... I think his heart has always been in the right place. Best of luck Jeff!

If he only fought to keep the HGP program in its original form...

WOW. Or should I say whoa? I'm shocked. However, I really wonder what's the inside story on this. Specifically, was he for or against WOH?

ADDED: As someone asked in a comment in the OMAAT blog, was Jeff Zidell a Resignerist or a Terminatedist?

Personally, I think this is proof that the Brave New World of Hyatt was not his vision.

Thanks for everything, Mr. Zidell.

However, under this theory, he stayed on for a long time after being overruled. Was it a sense of responsibility/loyalty to Hyatt? Or could he have been hoping to convince them to wind back some of the worst changes?

Perhaps he was the only thing preventing WoH from being even worse?

Or perhaps Hyatt is in advanced negotiations to be purchased/merged, and he knows he will not have a place going forward?

How so? If this Tale of WoH was his inspiration and if WoH is less than an overwhelming success, to be diplomatic, then being shown the door is proof that he was.

That's why I said "personally", as in based on my own personal knowledge of him. I like to think that he fought to lessen the badness of the edict from above.

Absent other evidence, the viewpoint that he was fired over a gigantic failure that he was solely responsible for is equally valid.

By the way, this is a material event for a publicly traded company, so either a press release is coming very soon, or (and?) Jeff is in big trouble for letting this slip.

Good point.

Not surprised, frankly. I don't know if he left because he disagreed with the direction of WoH, because it failed, or, as Ben seems to claim, because he felt this was a good point in his career to move on, having led the rollout of WoH.

In any case, good luck!

Then again, lack of six months notice of transition to WoH was a violation of their T&C, and they didn't care about that either.

Shoot! Who can I now contact when I am having a problem and REALLY need some help?

And agree with all the other sentiments--Hyatt GP has been by far the best Elite Program in the history of hotel loyalty programs :)

Thanks, Jeff. Hope maybe you'll re-emerge at Marriott, Hilton or IHG!

Thanks, Jeff. You single handedly brought me over from SPG. Sad to see HGP turn into WoH. Hopefully you move on to brighter and better things.

Hyatt has gone to the dark side, so not such a surprise. Adios, Jeff.