Equibase president to step down at end of February

Hank Zeitlin, the president and chief operating officer of Equibase Company since 2007, has resigned and will step down as of Feb. 29, 2016, the company announced on Friday.

Zeitlin, who has been with Equibase since 1998, informed the Equibase Management Committee that he intended to step down at the close of a recent board meeting, just after presenting the company’s business plan for 2016, according to officials. The resignation was “entirely his choice,” one official said.

In a release, Ian D. Highet, the chairman of the management committee, said that Equibase intends to name a successor for Zeitlin in the first quarter of 2016. Equibase, which collects and sells racing and breeding data, is a partnership of The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, a group of racetracks.

“Over the course of the past 25 years, Equibase has introduced a wide variety of products and services to help grow the sport of Thoroughbred racing, and Hank Zeitlin has played a major role in the creation and distribution of virtually all of them,” Highet said in the release. “We are immensely grateful for all of his contributions and look forward to continuing our relationship through a transition period and possibly beyond that.”

Zeitlin’s first position at Equibase was vice president of marketing and sales. He was promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2003 and then to his current position four years later.