Our Board of Directors

Ann Hoff, 

President and COO of Bellagio and Park MGM resorts, is responsible for the operations of two of Las Vegas’ most prominent resorts. Bellagio is a AAA Five Diamond Resort and the only hotel in the country with two AAA Five Diamond and Forbes Five-Star restaurants, Le Cirque and Picasso. In addition to luxury retail and fine art, Bellagio is home to two of the most iconic attractions in the world, The Fountains of Bellagio and the Conservatory. Park MGM is the newest MGM Resorts hotel brand in Las Vegas and the first smoke-free resort on The Strip. The resort is also home to the distinct and exclusive NoMad Hotel, including NoMad Restaurant and the first-ever NoMad casino. Park MGM quickly became a destination hot spot with Park Theater and special engagements from Lady Gaga, Aerosmith, Bruno Mars and Cher.

Throughout her 30-year tenure with MGM Resorts, Hoff has held several key executive positions including her most recent role as Chief Marketing Officer, overseeing the company’s Brand, Public Relations, Creative, Sales, Guest Experience and Direct Marketing efforts. Previously, she served as President and COO of Portfolio Properties where she led strategic direction for The Mirage, New York-New York, Luxor and Excalibur as well as the Retail and Hotel Centers of Excellence for the enterprise.

Hoff’s career with MGM Resorts began in 1990 when she joined the Management Associate Program (MAP) at The Mirage. Soon after, she was named Assistant Director of Leisure Marketing for the property, followed by Assistant Director of Sales at Treasure Island. In 1997, Hoff moved to Biloxi, MS, to become part of the opening team as Director of Marketing for the company’s 1,740-room Beau Rivage. In 2001, she returned to Las Vegas as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Treasure Island before becoming Vice President of Operations at New York-New York, overseeing the Hotel, Food & Beverage, Entertainment, Retail, Sales and Marketing divisions. Ms. Hoff served as President and Chief Operating Officer at Excalibur from 2015 to 2018, overseeing all aspects of the operation for the iconic 4,000-room resort while also leading several continuous improvement initiatives for MGM Resorts, including implementation of Paid Parking Program.

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Maureen Keenan brings over 33 years of gaming industry experience in finance and operations to her current role as Vice President of Finance for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa, Florida. In this role, she is responsible for the areas of finance, analysis, cage operations, credit, IT, warehouse and retail operations. Maureen is part of the leadership team at Seminole Gaming that formed the Women of Seminole Gaming to encourage and support the development and success of the women of Seminole Gaming. Prior to joining Seminole Hard Rock in 2007, Maureen spent 25 years with Aztar Corporation beginning at the Tropicana in Atlantic City, New Jersey and then relocating to Indiana to open the first Riverboat casino in that state, Casino Aztar-Evansville. She held executive positions at Casino Aztar including the position of Vice President/General Manger. Prior to this position she held the position of Vice President of Finance & Administration where she was responsible for the areas of Finance, analysis, cage operations, credit, IT, Human Resources, warehouse and retail operations. Maureen received her Bachelor of Science from University of Charleston, WV and Master of Science from University of Phoenix.  Married to Robert Sr. since 1988, and they have 2 wonderful children Robert, Jr and Caitlyn.

Ann Simmons Nicholson is President and Founder of the Simmons Group. She is recognized as an expert in Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Human Resources, Organizational Development and Training. The Simmons group has work internationally in private industry, for non-profit organizations, and government entities. Her clients such as Konami Gaming, Whole Foods, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Scientific Games, dozens of hotel casinos, schools and numerous non-profit organizations, have all benefited from Ann’s 30 plus years of experience.

Jennifer Roberts is the Director of Sports Gaming Regulation for the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation.  She previously served as Associate Director and interim Executive Director of the International Center for Gaming Regulation at University of Nevada Las Vegas, where she created a curriculum for educating regulators on sports betting and casino regulatory issues, established the U.S. Sports Betting Forum, and advised governments, including Japan, on the development of a casino regulatory structure and system.

Ms. Roberts has practiced gaming law for 17 years as a partner at Duane Morris LLP and shareholder in the Gaming & Regulatory Department of Lionel Sawyer & Collins, a Nevada-based law firm.  For 10 years, Ms. Roberts was an adjunct professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law, teaching courses on introduction to gaming law, gaming law policy, fundamentals of casino operations, and resort hotel casino law.  She was also an adjunct professor in gaming law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.  

Holly Gagnon is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the UNLV IGI.  She recently is working on various consulting projects with her newly formed company HGC Hospitality Gaming Consulting.  A gaming veteran of over 28 years, Holly has held senior leadership positions in Finance, IT and Operations.  She has worked for the largest commercial casino companies (Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts) as well as four successful Native American owned operations.  Most recently, as President & CEO for Seneca Gaming Corporation (2017-2020), Holly Gagnon made a significant impact inside and outside the organization in short order.  Under her tenure, the corporation launched Sports Betting into all of their resorts & casinos properties, formed strategic sports partnerships with Pegula Sports & Entertainment, and transformed the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino with the $40 million expansion/renovation project dubbed the “Seneca Arrival Experience”.  Holly is passionate about the importance of culture in an organization.  Improving employee engagement has been a cornerstone to her success in improving profitability.

As one of very few female CEOs in the gaming industry, Holly has leveraged her vision over the course of her 28-year career to consistently prioritize the guest experience, employee engagement, and drive superior results to the bottom line.  She is a calculated risk-taker that brings a valuable wealth of knowledge from her years in the gaming and hospitality industry. 

Holly earned an MBA from Chaminade University of Honolulu, received her BS in Accountancy from Bentley University in Massachusetts, and is also a CPA.  She serves as an independent board and audit committee member for GameWorks and is a founding board member of Global Gaming Women, where she chairs the mentorship committee.  Holly is serves as a Trustee for the Committee for Economic Development of the Conference Board where she is a member of the Women in Corporate Leadership and Workforce Development Committees as well as the Ad-Hoc Committee on Coronavirus Pandemic.  She has also been honored as Native American Finance Officers Association’s Executive of the Year, one of the Top 30 CEO’s with Native Business Magazine (2019), Pay It Forward Award with Global Gaming Women (2017), multiple times as Power Women with Buffalo Business First (2019, 2018, 2017), and Power 250 (2019 & 2018). She is a former member of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership Board of Directors and former member of the Mississippi Arts & Entertainment Experience (MAEEX) Board. 

Katie Lever is the first Chief Legal Officer at Lottery.com, a leading platform that offers domestic and international players the ability to play state-sanctioned lottery games directly from their mobile devices. Katie has been Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel to some of the gaming industry’s most influential operators and suppliers. In these roles, she’s navigated cutting edge legal, risk management, and regulatory challenges during these organizations’ greatest formative times, found creative solutions to complex corporate and strategic requirements against unforgiving timelines, and collaborated across corporate functions and across the globe, while cementing the trust of her teams, colleagues and Boards. She was the first woman Executive Vice President during her tenure at Scientific Games and its acquired entities, Bally Technology and SFHL entertainment, as well as in her position the first General Counsel & EVP at Global Cash Access.  Recently, in her roles as Chief Legal Officer at Drew Las Vegas and General Counsel & EVP at Baha Mar, she created the foundational structure for the legal, regulatory and compliance functions for these integrated luxury resort destinations. She has brought together her experience in FinTech, corporate law, and risk management as a Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of the GBank Financial Holdings Inc., one of the top-rated community banks in the country. Katie is committed to philanthropic engagement within her industry and community, and is a Counsellor and former President of the International Association of Gaming Advisors, a committee member of the William Hill USA Charitable Foundation, Chairwoman of Go Red for Women (Nevada), a member of Gaming Law Advisory Board at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law, amongst other commitments. 

CHRIS HILL
Chief Legal Officer
Aristocrat Technologies, Inc.

Chris Hill was appointed Chief Legal Officer of Aristocrat in February 2020 and is responsible for leading the company’s global legal and compliance functions.

Before joining Aristocrat, Chris was the Chief Legal Officer and Head of Global Corporate Citizenship at Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) until February 2019, when the company completed its going private transaction. Chris joined D&B in September 2011 as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary with global responsibilities for the company’s legal, compliance, regulatory, and government affairs. In 2014, she was appointed Chief Legal Officer, and in 2017, her role was expanded to include global corporate responsibility in recognition of the evolving role corporations play in environmental, social and governance matters.

Prior to joining D&B, Chris served as the General Counsel, Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of Primus Telecommunications Group, Inc., a global telecommunications company, following its acquisition of Arbinet Corporation, where she was General Counsel, Secretary and Chief Human Resources Officer.

Chris also ran the oversight liaison and reporting function at the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Financial Stability following ten years of service at Nextel Communications, later Sprint Nextel Corporation. There she served as Vice President, Corporate Secretary and Chief Ethics Officer. Before joining Nextel in 1998, Chris served as counsel at Honda of America Mfg. She began her career at Jones Day in the firm's mergers and acquisitions group.

Chris holds a bachelor's degree (summa cum laude) from the Ohio State University, a Juris Doctor degree (with honors) from the Ohio State University College of Law, and a Strategic Business Leadership Certificate from the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business.

HELEN MACMILLAN
GGW Education Committee
Co-Chair
General Manager
Rideau Carleton Ottawa

ANIKA HOWARD
GGW Marketing Committee
Co-Chair
VP Brand & Digital Marketing, Foxwoods Casino Resort

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Currently, as the Vice President of Brand Marketing and Digital at Foxwoods Resort Casino - the largest resort casino in North America.  She leads advertising, public relations, online marketing, sponsorships/partnerships, web development, social media for the resort.  She is also responsible for the FoxwoodsONLINE social casino and driving the strategy and vision into the expansion of sports betting and online gaming.   

Prior to her time at Foxwoods, Anika was a senior leader at IGT. She focused her expertise on strategy and marketing for IGT’s mobile gaming and sports betting services in North America. During her tenure Anika launched the first US iLottery site for the Illinois Lottery - giving Illinois residents the ability to purchase Mega Millions, Powerball and Lotto tickets online. She later led the development launch of the Georgia Education Lottery’s iLottery platform. Finally, she led IGT’s initial rollout of MGM’s mobile sports betting solution in Las Vegas and New Jersey, launched the PlayDigital, PlaySports and PlaySpot mobile on-premise sports betting solution business units.

Anika was named a Bronze Stevie Award Winner for the 2020 Marketing Executive of the Year, has been named one of the “25 People to Watch for 2018” by Global Gaming Business Magazine, and won the “2018 Women of Achievement Award” from the Nevada Women’s Fund.  She hold Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Information Systems Management from Arizona State University.

ERICA KOSEMUND
Senior Director of Gaming Brand & Partnerships, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma 

 
STANA SUBARIC
Chair GGW Membership Committee Chair
Senior Vice President of People & Culture for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority

Stana Subaric currently serves as the Senior Vice President of People & Possibilities for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. 

In this role, she is responsible for leading, driving and managing dynamic change across the organization and devising a strategy for talent development, training, risk mitigation, ambassador/labor relations and performance management.  She also has the overall responsibility for aligning organizational performance to business outcomes through strong leadership and an appropriate balance between the strategic and tactical aspects of People & Possibilities through a hands-on orientation and a relationship-building approach.  

Before joining the LVCVA, Ms. Subaric held multiple Human Resource leadership positions for corporations including Affinity Gaming, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Caesars Entertainment. She is an acting member for the Society of Human Resource Management and has participated in volunteer work with organizations including Make-A-Wish, Alzheimer’s Association, and Candelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation.

Lauren Bates
GGW Mentorship Committee
Co-Chair 
Vice President, West Game Sales, Konami Gaming, Inc.

Lauren Bates currently serves as the Vice President, West Game Sales, Konami Gaming, Inc.; a leading innovator of slot machines and gaming enterprise management systems for the global gaming market  Since joining Konami in 2006, Mrs. Bates has held various positions. In her current role, Lauren is responsible for developing and managing her team of sales professionals, driving revenue, increasing overall market and ship share, and the development and execution of annual business strategy.  Lauren has a proven success record of 13 years in gaming that include highly recognized sales achievements for both games and system sales, business process improvement, and mentoring/leadership programs. Lauren grew up in Ohio, earned her BA from The Ohio State University in Marketing and Logistics with a Minor in Professional Writing, and recently completed UCSD’s Mindful Executive graduate program.  She enjoys volunteering at various organizations throughout Southern Nevada and is an active member of Global Gaming Women serving on the Board of Directors and various committees.