MGM Resorts International announced on December 4 that Chief Financial Officer Corey Sanders has been appointed chief operating officer, a position that took effect the same day.
The 57-year-old Sanders, who previously served as COO from 2010 to March 2019, will continue to fulfill the duties of CFO and treasurer “until a replacement is hired and is in place,” the company noted in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The executive first joined MGM in March 2019.
Sanders’ new role was made public the same day MGM Resorts announced that Atif Rafiq had resigned as the company’s president for commercial and growth. Rafiq joined the company in April 2019 and will remain with MGM “through December 18,” the company disclosed.
“We are unfortunately losing a talented colleague, but I believe strongly that we must put into place the right leadership team to bring us forward into a bright future,” Hornbuckle said of Rafiq in a memo obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Also on December 4, two other appointments were revealed. Anton Nikodemus was named president of CityCenter in Las Vegas and Ann Hoff, the company’s former chief marketing officer, was named president of Bellagio and Park MGM. The company is also creating the corporate position of chief technology officer.
MGM Resorts President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle made note of the changes in a statement, saying, “Earlier this year we embarked on a reorganization of leadership at the property level and now I have completed a reorganization at the corporate level.”
MGM board member Paul Salem was named chairman in March, replacing Murren, reported CDC Gaming Reports, and in August, the boarded added IAC/InterActiveCorp Chairman and Senior Executive Barry Diller and CEO Joey Levin, for a total of 14 board members.
Last summer, IAC acquired more than 59 million shares of MGM Resorts for a 12 percent. Diller called it a “minority position.”
Hornbuckle himself succeeded Jim Murren as interim president and CEO in March, and then officially assumed the dual leadership positions in late July. He said the new appointees “will help us grow the company and build us back stronger than ever before. I truly believe that our best days are in front of us, and together this leadership team will bring this company to new heights.”
Richard McGowan, a finance professor at Boston College, told Casino.org that new management “will bring new ideas on how to utilize” $750 million in new financing. He added that the new management team “needs to reduce the number of operations and increase the profitability of the remaining casinos. They also need to increase the entertainment portion of their casino operations.”
In May, when executive layoffs at MGM made the news, McGowan predicted, “I would be very surprised if more layoffs did not happen. The casino industry in those areas where there is too much saturation will be experiencing complete closures.” In August, MGM laid off 18,000 furloughed workers. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, MGM Resorts employed 70,000 workers in the U.S. And in 2019, before the viral outbreak, MGM laid off 254 managers as part of a plan to reduce labor costs by $100 million.
