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Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox to step down in January

November 09, 2021 at 05:23 pm EST

(Reuters) - Wynn Resorts Ltd Chief Executive Officer Matt Maddox will step down at the end of January and hand over the reins to executive Craig Billings, the casino operator said on Tuesday.

Billings, who joined Wynn Resorts as its finance chief in 2017, most recently served as the head of Wynn Interactive, the company's 72%-owned unit housing its U.S. online sports betting and gaming business.

Billings will also become a board member.

Maddox took the helm at Wynn in February 2018 after founder Steve Wynn resigned in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.

"This has not been an easy decision. I am leaving a company that I love and that's full of people I admire," Maddox said.

"But I believe now is the right time for me and for the business."

(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

Steve Wynn

Stephen Alan "Steve" Wynn (born January 27, 1942) is an American business magnate. He played a pivotal role in the 1990s resurgence and expansion of the Las Vegas Strip. His companies refurbished or built what are now widely recognized resorts in Las Vegas, including the Golden Nugget, The Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn, and Encore.

Now, as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Wynn Resorts, Limited, Wynn has developed Wynn Las Vegas, which opened on April 28, 2005; Wynn Macau, which opened in September 2006; Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, which opened December 22, 2008; and Encore at Wynn Macau, which opened on April 21, 2010.

As of June 2014, Wynn is the 428th richest man in the world with a net worth of $4 billion. Wynn was raised in Utica, New York, and graduated from The Manlius School, a private boys' school east of Syracuse, New York, in 1959. Steve Wynn studied cultural anthropology and English literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity.

In 1963, his father died of complications from open heart surgery in Minneapolis, leaving $350,000 of gaming debts, shortly before Wynn graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature.

Career

Frontier and the Golden Nugget
Wynn took over running the family's bingo operation in Maryland. His success allowed him to invest in a small stake for the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where he and his wife, Elaine, moved in 1967. Between 1968 and 1972 he also owned and operated a wine and liquor importing company. He managed to parlay his profits from a land deal in 1971 (the deal involved Howard Hughes and Caesars Palace) into a controlling interest in the landmark downtown casino, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas (he would later open the Golden Nugget Atlantic City in Atlantic City, New Jersey). Wynn renovated, revamped and expanded the Golden Nugget from a gambling hall to a resort hotel and casino with enormous success, in the process attracting a new upscale clientele to downtown Las Vegas. Frank Sinatra was a headliner at the Golden Nugget. Wynn maintains a relationship with Sinatra family, and named a restaurant at Encore “Sinatra”.

Source @ Wikipedia

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