MGM Resorts International's (NYSE:MGM) CEO James J. Murren, 58, unexpectedly announced his intention to step down last week until the board can recruit his successor. His long reign at the Las Vegas giant has had its wins and losses, but clearly, it is apparent here that facing the 2020’s, it was time to reposition the company with a sharper, more defined focus going forward. (Below: Jim Murren always out front on corporate responsibility issues. Source: Las Vegas Review Journal)
Murren’s predecessor, the highly regarded J. Terrence Lanni (d. 2011), was my former boss at Caesars (NASDAQ:CZR) back in the day. He too emerged from the financial community. It was a time when the company was dogged by sketchy association baggage from the 1970s. Challenged by threats from AC regulators, the board replaced the founders with a trio of clean-cut young financial industry men to help dispel any residual taint from Caesars' beginnings in 1966.
Terry transformed himself into one of the most effective gaming leaders in the industry. I worked with him on developing the huge international VIP business, especially in Asia. He was proof that even an investment banker mentality could be transformed into a sharp gaming executive. He left CZR for MGM in 1995 to work for Kirk Kerkorian. In the process, he recruited Murren as chief financial guy and, later, CEO in 1998. When Lanni resigned over a resume kerfuffle in 2008, I called him with good wishes and said I was curious that he had not chosen a gaming guy to succeed him.
“Do you hope to repeat your own history?” I asked. He told me that gaming was entering a new world where non-gaming revenue streams and a diversity of assets would play heavily into future success. “Jim’s a solid guy in weighing asset values,” I recall him saying.
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