Eric Danziger is stepping down from his role as CEO of Trump Hotels to become CEO of Braintree Group.
Danziger has served as Trump Hotels’ chief executive for six years, joining the company in August 2015. He will step into his new leadership role March 28 at Boise, Idaho-based Braintree, an investment group with companies that focus on education, multifamily housing, storage and hospitality.
“I have an excitement for learning new things, and this is a unique opportunity for me to apply my skills to an expanded portfolio of businesses, as well as allow me to move closer to family in the Boise area,” Danziger said in the news release announcing his hiring.
Braintree co-founder Ryan Van Alfen cited Danziger’s success in growing companies.
“We are confident in his leadership experience and proven ability to grow companies and excited by his potential to enhance the Braintree offering, not just in the hospitality industry, but in each sector Braintree is engaged in,” Van Alfen said in the release.
Among its companies is Braintree Hospitality, a hotel development and full-service management company that owns and operates 14 hotels in the western U.S. Its commercial real estate development firm, Braintree Properties, has experience in ground-up development and has investments totaling more than $1.6 billion.
Danziger’s hospitality career started at the age of 17 as a bellman at the Fairmont San Francisco in 1971, where he learned lessons that have guided his work since.
“What I remember most about my time at that hotel was realizing who the people are who make the hotel work,” he said in a 2018 interview with HNN. “For example, the importance of the bellmen was clear to me: They’re the ones who open the door and set the entire experience for the customer. That made me grow to respect the real people who run the real hotel.”
He would work his way up through the industry, eventually serving as president and chief operations officer of Carlson Hotels, president and CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, president and CEO of Wyndham Hotel Group and president and CEO of Hampshire Hotels Management, now known as Dream Hotel Group.
Danziger oversaw Trump Hotels during a uniquely tumultuous period for the company, which encompassed the time when its namesake Donald Trump served as President of the United States and various national scandals that put the business under a microscope. President Trump's election scuttled some plans for international expansions, and two new hotel brands announced during Danziger's tenure leading Trump Hotels — Scion and American Idea — were scrapped after not gaining traction. Trump Hotels currently has properties in Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas and New York with resorts in Florida, Ireland and Scotland, while Trump properties in Panama, Toronto, New York, and Vancouver have left the brand in recent years. The company is nearing a deal to sell its Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
“Eric is a titan of industry,” Jason Kotter, co-founder of Braintree, said in the news release on Danziger’s hiring. “He will bring a depth and breadth of executive prowess previously unseen in the Treasure Valley and further Braintree’s impact in communities across the West.”