By James R. Hagerty
The son of a milkman, Steve Bollenbach didn't attend an elite
college or learn to swagger on Wall Street. Yet his reputation for
financial wizardry was so strong that his services were sought by
the Marriott and Hilton families, Walt Disney Co. and Donald
Trump.
He revitalized Hilton Hotels, helped Disney acquire the
ABC-television network and ESPN, split Marriott into two companies,
and got Donald Trump out of a financial bind.
Mr. Bollenbach died Oct. 8 at a New York hospital after what his
wife termed a long illness. He was 74 years old.
"He could take a very complex situation and boil it down into a
very simple road map," said Matthew Hart, who worked with Mr.
Bollenbach at several companies. He also was decisive and adept at
figuring out what would please fickle investors at any given
time.
Though generally affable, his temper could be set off by such
things as unreliable cellphone service or an investment banker who
failed to return a call promptly. "When Steve was not happy with
you, I mean, the room shook," said Ken Moelis, an investment
banking adviser and friend of Mr. Bollenbach. "Smoke would be
coming out." Those eruptions quickly abated, though, and there were
no hard feelings.
Stephen Frasier Bollenbach was born July 14, 1942, in the Los
Angeles area. As a teenager, he served ice cream at Disneyland. He
earned a bachelor's degree in business at the University of
California, Los Angeles, and a master's in business administration
at California State University, Northridge.
Before completing his schooling, he got a part-time job as a
teller at a savings and loan. His boss there, John Notter, was
struck by Mr. Bollenbach's precocious grasp of business. He was
given a full-time job after graduation and followed Mr. Notter to
another savings and loan, owned by Daniel K. Ludwig, a secretive
billionaire with interests in shipping, real estate and a mammoth
pulp project in Brazil that flopped. Messrs. Notter and Bollenbach
helped steer Mr. Ludwig's financial affairs for more than a
decade.
In the 1980s, Mr. Bollenbach worked as the treasurer at Marriott
Corp. and chief financial officer at Holiday Corp., which owned the
Holiday Inn chain.
Hired by the Trump Organization in 1990, Mr. Bollenbach drew up
agreements calling for Mr. Trump to give up equity in casino, real
estate and airline holdings in exchange for new terms on his debt
and a release from $650 million in personal debt guarantees.
Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Trump said Tuesday Mr. Bollenbach had "a
brilliant financial mind."
Mr. Bollenbach returned to Marriott as chief financial officer
in the early 1990s and found its stock price was weighed down
because real-estate holdings were out of favor. His solution was to
divide the company into two: Marriott International Inc., a
high-growth hotel operator, and Host Marriott Corp., a debt-laden
real-estate company. That led to downgrades of bonds and resulted
in litigation, but Mr. Bollenbach, who became CEO of Host Marriott,
prevailed in court.
Mr. Bollenbach disliked making presentations to investors and
often considered them a waste of time. As CEO of Host Marriott, the
new real-estate company, he went on a roadshow to meet investors
and made a stop at a financial firm in Philadelphia, where only a
junior chemical analyst was available to hear the pitch.
Afterward, an investment banker who had arranged the visit began
apologizing. Mr. Bollenbach shushed him, and they returned to a
limousine in silence. Mr. Bollenbach spotted a cheese-steak peddler
and rolled down the window to ask whether he might want to buy any
Host Marriott securities. The peddler was baffled. Mr. Bollenbach
told the banker he had a better chance of selling securities to the
cheese-steak vendor than the institution just visited.
Disney recruited him in 1995 as chief financial officer under
CEO Michael Eisner. Mr. Bollenbach helped persuade Mr. Eisner to
pay $19 billion for Capital Cities/ABC Inc., the second-largest
U.S. acquisition ever at that time. ("Without him, I would never
have the courage to take on this much debt," Mr. Eisner said.) The
Disney chief then hired the talent agent Michael Ovitz as
president. That seemed to dilute Mr. Bollenbach's clout at Disney.
Barron Hilton, son of the hotel company's founder, swooped in to
hire Mr. Bollenbach as CEO of Hilton Hotels in 1996.
When he arrived, Hilton had a strong brand but was "just sort of
plodding along," said Marc Grossman, who was a senior vice
president at the hotel company. Within a week, Mr. Bollenbach
presented a plan including purchases of casinos and hotels and
wringing more value out of the Hilton brand. "What we really had
lacked was a clear, concise, achievable story and strategy, and
here it was," Mr. Grossman said.
Mr. Bollenbach bought the gambling company Bally Entertainment
Corp. to give Hilton more scale in casinos, and later spun off the
gaming operations. In 1997, Mr. Bollenbach tried to buy ITT Corp.,
owner of the Sheraton hotel brand, but he was outbid by Starwood
Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. The battle got ugly, and at one
point Mr. Bollenbach called ITT's CEO, Rand Araskog, a "weenie."
When Starwood prevailed, Mr. Bollenbach played down his
disappointment. "It's not as bad as when I stub my toe in the
backyard," he said.
He went on to make what colleagues say was a better deal, buying
Promus Hotel Corp., giving Hilton a broader range of brands,
including Hampton Inn. In 2007, Blackstone Group LP bought Hilton
for $20 billion, and Mr. Bollenbach retired. He held board seats at
companies including American International Group Inc. and Mondelez
International Inc.
In his spare time, Mr. Bollenbach drove sports cars including a
Porsche 911 Turbo S and Ferrari Testarossa. He skied well, played
golf poorly, collected wine and studied Civil War history. A family
education fund he established provides scholarships.
He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, whom he married in 2011,
as well as two sons and two grandchildren from a previous
marriage.
Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 21, 2016 10:14 ET (14:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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