Operator News
US – Matt Maddox to step down as Wynn CEO
By Phil - 10 November 2021
Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox has said he will step down from his position next year and will be replaced by current Wynn Interactive CEO Craig Billings.
He will leave the job at the end of January 2022 but will remain on the Board of Directors of both Wynn Macau and Wynn Interactive until the end of 2022.
Mr. Maddox said: “This has not been an easy decision. I am leaving a company that I love and that’s full of people I admire. But I believe now is the right time for me and for the business.
“I’ve been at Wynn for 20 years and been the CEO for the last four. And I made a commitment in 2018 to this company into the board of directors in what was likely one of the messiest transitions in corporate history, that I’d do everything I could to keep the culture, to get the company on firm footing and to ensure that we would emerge better than we were before. Now along that journey, as we were making lots of progress in getting things stable, we bumped into a pandemic. And that was the time really when Wynn was able to shine. We became the beacon in hospitality; people looked at us on what to do,” he added.
“I’m very happy to say that the board has picked the exact right person to replace me as I transition out in Craig Billings. Craig has been my right-hand man for five years now. He has been through the good, the bad, all of it. And he knows what to do. He understands culture, he’s not a guy that’s going to build a big corporate infrastructure. He makes decisions fast and he feels the brand. And the company really couldn’t be in a better position going forward. In fact, if you look at that, I think the proof is in this quarter. If we just jumped to the results and get the business here in Las Vegas, we made a $183m of EBITDA. And that’s not a whole bunch of cost savings that are going to go away over time, again you sustain the margin, etc. Only $15m to $18m of that 183 came from cost-savings, the rest of it we’re taking market share.
“We are not only outpacing all of our results, but we’re taking share from the market. I knew coming in that we needed to cater to a demographic that was in more the 30 to 50s on top of our current demographic in the baby boomer generation. I feel very good about where Wynn Las Vegas is in terms of its culture, its employees, the product, and it’s future. Looking on for Boston Harbor, same thing. Record results $64m of EBITDA, and we did — very similar that we did in Las Vegas during the shutdown was we’ve looked at things that weren’t working. We had a buffet that was losing $12m a year, so we ripped it out when we were shut down and we built probably the world’s best sports bar that once Massachusetts legalizes sports betting, it’ll be the best sports book on the east coast, hands-down.”
