New Zealand-based operator SkyCity Entertainment has announced that Andrew McPherson will be the company’s permanent chief information officer, after previously serving on an interim basis since last November.
McPherson’s current stint with SkyCity is his second with the company, having served as its ICT portfolio manager from 2019-21 before taking the role of chief technology officer at the media company Stuff.
On a LinkedIn post March 18, McPherson said that he is “happy to be back with the SkyCity Entertainment Group family.”
SkyCity has faced some adversity in recent months, including civil penalty proceedings brought against the company’s casino license subsidiary, SkyCity Casino Management (SCML), by New Zealand’s department of internal affairs over allegations of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) violations.
If found guilty of all charges, the company could face a fine of up to $4.9 million.
SkyCity has said that some of the issues were self-reported, and that its internal AML/CTF enhancement program has addressed and corrected several shortcomings in recent years.
In addition to its struggles in its home country, SkyCity is also experiencing headaches in Australia, where it operates SkyCity Adelaide. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac), the country’s financial crime agency, also launched proceedings against the company for similar AML allegations in late 2022.
In October, CEO Michael Ahearne announced that he would be stepping down, and his tenure is set to end at the end of this month.
