Stephen Bollenbach Ran the Numbers for Hilton, Disney, Marriott and Trump

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 [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 21, 2016 10:14 ET (14:14 GMT)

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