Pyramid Global Hospitality Chief Operating Officer Eric Habermann retired in April following seven years with the company and a nearly 40-year career in hospitality. His successor in the position, Isaac Hicks, is a 30-year veteran of hospitality who joined Pyramid six years ago as senior vice president of business analytics and operational excellence. Hicks was subsequently promoted to executive vice president of operations, finance, and analytics, and in 2022 was named chief financial officer. Having worked with Habermann for nearly 15 years—well before their collaboration at Pyramid—Hicks shared with LODGING some of his predecessor’s key contributions that deliver more value for Pyramid’s clients, as well as his own plans to build upon those initiatives as the new COO.
“Eric changed the dynamics of how we manage our hotels,” said Hicks. “It’s really about how we’re structured, which allows us to scale and provide better service to the owner.” Whereas the company previously had centralized management for a client’s hotels irrespective of where they were located, “we’ve now placed the leaders of our hotels in the regions where they operate,” said Hicks. “So, we have people that know the markets much better, much deeper, and have a whole team of people. … We’ve provided support to each one of the regions in a very purposeful way. Everybody has an HR lead, a sales lead, a finance lead, etc. And so today, we have four regions, both east and west, but also one leader for our branded portfolio and one for our independent portfolio so that they can really focus on how those types of hotels ultimately define success, which is a little bit different.”
On the technology side, “Eric introduced the idea of using big data to help manage our business,” said Hicks, adding that he drove this initiative by building a business intelligence platform. “I wanted to give our owners access to the data analytics platform we call NEO and bring them into the fold … so that we can all start to speak the same language,” Hicks said. The platform consolidates industry data from multiple sources—e.g., STAR Reports, Cvent, and PMS data from individual hotels—to facilitate decision-making.
“It has really allowed us to get better visibility on the performance of each individual asset, which is ultimately driving better behavior and better productivity across our own systems and better performance at the hotel level,” he explained. “We’ve invested a huge amount in that space, and going forward, I think it is a key differentiator between us and everybody else.” The business analytics platform is also accessible companywide. “A lot of companies don’t have that; they’re chasing data manually, and our teams don’t have to do that. They just log in to our business analytics platform,” he said.
New CFO
Moving into Hicks’ former role as CFO is Judy Brigham, whose 12 years at Pyramid include her previous role as executive vice president of corporate finance. “I am not a CPA, but she is,” said Hicks. “So certainly, the way she looks at things and understands corporate finance is different than my approach was, because I don’t have a corporate finance background. My background is operations finance. … She loves kind of traditional CFO duties and is very good at those.”
Regarding both Hicks’ and Brigham’s promotions, Warren Fields, CEO of Pyramid Global Hospitality, commented in a press statement: “These internal promotions reflect the strength, depth, and succession planning of our full leadership team. This team has played an integral role in the company’s success, including the expansion of our global footprint, recognition as a top place to work, and continuation of our goal to be the manager of choice.”
Portfolio Growth
The hotel management regionalization that Habermann implemented and the big-data platform that Hicks developed continue to benefit new clients as Pyramid expands its portfolio. Last June, the company grew its U.S. portfolio with the addition of four resorts: Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix; Naples Grande Beach Resort in Naples, Florida; Chatham Bars Inn in Chatham, Massachusetts; and Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michaels, Maryland. And in November 2024, the company’s European division, Hamilton Pyramid Europe, merged with Axiom Hospitality, adding more than 30 properties to Pyramid’s European portfolio.
