Greg Carlin, Rush Street Gaming CEO and co-founder, will depart the company May 1, and longtime executive Tim Drehkoff will move from CFO to CEO. Carlin had been CEO of both Rush Street Gaming and Rush Street Interactive until last year when he resigned the post at Interactive to concentration on Gaming.
“We thank Greg for his many contributions and for helping to build a great business. Greg has a proven eye for recruiting and developing top talent, of which Tim is a great example,” said Rush Street Chairman Neil Bluhm.
In an exclusive interview with GGB, Carlin paid tribute to Bluhm, his partner in founding Rush Street Gaming
“I’ve learned so much from him,” Carlin says. “He’s like a father to me. But Neil wants to keep growing a bigger and bigger business and we’re looking at all these new projects. For me, every time we got a property, it’s more stress because I’m a hands-on guy.
“I just turned 55, and I want to consider what I want to do for the next 25 years. I’m really proud of what we did at Rush Street—both companies, gaming and interactive—the cultures that we built and the business that we built. But I’m ready to be a majority owner of a smaller business, build a small team and, and go for it.”
Drehkoff has spent almost 20 years with Rush Street and was appointed the company’s first chief financial officer in 2012. Prior to that, he was an analyst in investment banking and at a private equity firm.
In his role as CFO, Tim directed Rush Street’s capital market strategies, new development opportunities, mergers and acquisitions, financial reporting, budget and capital planning, investor relations and other enterprise-wide finance matters.
He helped develop five full-service casinos from the ground up within a span of eight years. He has helped raise more than $5 billion in debt financing for Rush Street’s properties via more than a dozen transactions in the past decade.
He also served as chairman of the audit committee and member of the compliance committee for the Fallsview Management Company board of directors, which oversees operations of Canada’s top-performing Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
A graduate of the University of Chicago, Drehkoff earned his MBA from the university’s Booth School of Business, where he was awarded the Gary S. Becker Distinguished Fellowship.
“Rush Street is in great hands with Tim as CEO, and we’ve never had a more talented group of executives at all our properties,” said Carlin. “It has been the honor of a lifetime to start a business with Neil and develop and operate six successful casino projects, all of which have had a positive impact on their host communities.”
