Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment has tapped Ari Glazer, a Citi veteran, as its new CFO; he is to assume the role starting on May 1. Outgoing CFO Carol Anderson decided not to renew her contract, which ended on March 31.
Glazer has spent more than 20 years at Citi advising the gaming and hospitality industry, most recently as a managing director and global head of Gaming and Hospitality client coverage.
According to Mohegan, Glazer will be responsible for all finance activities, including financial planning and analysis, capital markets, accounting, tax, treasury, procurement and cash management for its operations in the US, Canada, and South Korea, plus its digital division. He will report directly to Mohegan president and CEO Ray Pineault.
He will start during the height of the company’s business season. Most customers visit the casino venues between May and August. Mohegan Gaming saw a 4.6% increase in net revenue to $425.2 million in the quarter ended on December 31 compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, operating expenses for the same period grew 16.9% to $393.2 million.
“Ari embodies the visionary leadership and deep financial insight that Mohegan is looking for at this stage of our growth,” Pineault said in a statement. “His skills will be key to our strategy of diversifying Mohegan’s portfolio and strengthening our fiscal foundation.”
Glazer’s appointment comes on the heels of Connecticut-based Mohegan’s February hiring of Kurt Shotzberger as vice president of Financial Planning and Analysis. Shotzberger’s remit includes budgeting, financial modeling, forecasting, financial and operational planning, and strategic planning.
Glazer’s departure from Citi came at a tumultuous time, however. The banking giant began a significant reorganization in September that winnowed its core businesses to Services, Markets, Wealth, US Personal Banking, and Banking & International. As part of the process, it expects to eliminate 20,000 positions globally outside of its Mexican operations, which are slated for a 2025 initial public offering. The winnowing will be top-to-bottom; some 25% of jobs eliminated will be analysts, directors and managing directors, according to press reports.
“We’re on track with our execution of this effort and it will generate over $1 billion of run-rate savings at the end of the first quarter, purely from the organization efforts that we put in,” said Citi CEO Jane Fraser on the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
