Season: 2019

Paul Speirs-Hernandez is a communications and public relations expert who has help grow some of the gaming industry’s most successful brands. A native of the Salt Lake City area, he graduated Summa Cum Laude in Public Relations and Marketing from Southern Utah University. He is an internationally published writer and has spoken at several conferences across the United States. He is the founder and president of Steinbeck Communications, a communications firm, and its Red Wagon Institute division provides leadership training and adult experiential learning. He has been honored as one of the Top 40 Business People Under 40 in Las Vegas. He balances his work life with charitable work, and volunteers for numerous community organizations, including the Yellow Pants Project and the NV Dems RACE Committee. He and his husband live in their cat Nico’s house in Las Vegas.

Tom Soukup is responsible for the development of all components of the comprehensive SYNKROS casino management system. He oversees Konami’s systems product vision to provide accurate, robust, real-time casino enterprise management to properties of all specialties and sizes. Soukup joined Konami Gaming, Inc. in 2001 with more than 20 years’ experience in the field of computer science including a position as a senior systems engineer in advanced technology. He is also the author of the book Visual Data Mining: Tools and Techniques for Data Visualization and Mining. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science and holds a master’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science.

Edward “Eddie” Sotto III has been described by many as a “visionary,” “renaissance designer,” “entrepreneur” and a pioneer in experiential design. His core strength lies in reimagining and generating original concepts, as SVP of concept design at Disney Imagineering, taken through to execution. His cinematic approach to design organically came from his mentors, Hollywood set designers and Walt Disney’s original Imagineers. His recent TED talk describes “experiences” as sensory systems to be observed and tuned, sets SottoStudios/LA apart from architectural firms and many ad agencies. Sotto and his team’s obsession with immersion and seamless continuity, even AR and VR, make SSLA’s projects compelling and unique.

In Books.

TED founder Richard Saul Wurman lists Sotto in his book “Who’s Really Who—The 1,000 most Creative People in America”

“Eddie’s passion for new ideas and one-of-a-kind Adventures was a creative leader’s dream” says Disney Imagineering President Marty Sklar in “Dream it! Do it!.”

“Wildly imaginative Imagineer” Disney CEO Michael Eisner describes him in “Work in Progress.”

Sotto is most quoted (400+ entries) in the industry bible, “Theme Park Design.”

Today

SottoStudios/LA , formed in 2004, as an experiential design and solutions firm, helps clients envision experiential projects from concept to completion. Beyond entertainment design and AR/VR, SSLA also accepts UHNW private commissions, most recently collaborating with Embraer Aircraft, winning “best private jet concept” at the IYAA awards. sottoluxury.com

Brands SottoStudios has showcased or worked on behalf of include Nestle, Aston-Martin, Ferrari, Porsche, Wynn Resorts, Kerzner, Paramount, Disney, Sea World, Cedar Fair, NBC/Universal, Blue Origin, The Irvine Co., Yum!, Microsoft, Dentsu, NASA, Embraer, Procter and Gamble, and PepsiCo to name a few.

Roger Snow is a senior vice president at Scientific Games. Snow, the former chief product officer at Shuffle Master, has created or some of the most successful proprietary table games in the industry, including Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Crazy 4 Poker and Dragon Bonus Baccarat. His games are played on thousands of tables in more than 50 countries around the world.

Colin Skidmore joined Harrah’s Resort Southern California, a Caesars Entertainment property, in November of 2004 as a bellman in the hotel. After a year, he took an opportunity to join the table games team as a dual-rated pit clerk/dealer. While on graveyard he worked his way up to supervisor. Skidmore was then promoted to casino operations scheduler and helped build the schedule for poker and table games. Skidmore then made a transition to the continuous improvement team as an efficiencies manager for the property. Skidmore’s next move was to finance, where he served as planning & analysis manager managing budgets, financial analysis, and forecasting for the property. His next promotion was into marketing as the marketing manager with oversight of Total Rewards, transportation, and events and promotions. He returned to casino operations as a casino operations manager in 2015 and was then promoted to director of table games in 2016.

James Siva serves as the elected Vice Chair for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Cabazon, California and the Vice Chair of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. Now in his third term on the Morongo Tribal Council, Siva helps advance new economic development opportunities for the tribe and implements tribal policies that guide the 35,000-acre Morongo Indian Reservation.

Born and raised on the Morongo Indian Reservation, Siva credits his family for instilling within him a deep commitment to serving his tribe and preserving its rich culture. His mother served on the Tribal Council in the 1990s.

Dedicated to the ideal that the tribe’s core values should guide its business activities, Siva has played key roles in Morongo’s pursuit and establishment of new economic development projects that align with the tribe’s principles of self-reliance and self-determination. Siva helped create Tribal Capital Markets, LLC, a New York-based financial services firm formed by Morongo in 2015 to assist tribes and other clients in achieving economic growth while also developing future generations of tribal financial professionals.

Siva is also active in efforts to expand Morongo’s retail, service, hospitality and dining offerings along Interstate 10 as part of a master-planned development that will further diversify and strengthen the tribe’s portfolio of business enterprises.

Siva graduated cum laude from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in Ethnicity and Race Studies. He was the inaugural recipient of Columbia’s Native Alumni Seven Generation Award for Outstanding Community Service.

Siva and his wife, Christina, have two young children. He volunteers at First Congregational Church of Fullerton, where his wife serves as pastor, and he is active in the church’s Crop Walk and Hot Meals Ministry, which both provide food to those in need.

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.

Nicholson has opened, expanded, or merged 47 operations including hotel casinos, cruise ships, furniture markets, manufacturing companies and indoor water parks, providing full-service talent management consulting services. In start-ups as well as mergers and acquisitions, the Simmons Group has also been instrumental in the conceptualizing and implementing the integration of multiple people and cultures into one organizational culture

During her career, she has worked with all of the major players in the gaming industry including Caesars, Scientific Games, Harrahs, MGM Resorts International, Station Casinos, Grand Casinos, Aristocrat, The Rio, M Resort, Palms & Palms Place, Mandalay Bay, and numerous Tribal Gaming Entities. Her work has included successful openings, all areas of human resources, guiding organizations through change, training and executive coaching. The unique ability to partner with clients to achieve their best outcomes in addition to being an invaluable resource to companies seeking her services have proven to be some of her greatest strengths.

An over 20-year resident of Las Vegas, Ann serves her community in a variety of ways. She is a board member for Noah’s Animal House, Communities in Schools Nevada, United Way of Southern Nevada, and an officer and board member for Global Gaming Women. She is heavily involved in Communities in Schools National, The Core Academy, Safe Nest, and the Keep it Alive Foundation among others. In addition to financial support, Ann donates scores of hours each year to numerous non-profit organizations helping them with Human Resource and training needs.

All of her consulting is designed around specific strategic and practical outcomes designated by her client.

Simmons is a graduate of Concordia College, where she earned a BA in Organization & Communications Management. She is also a Certified Human Resources Manager through the University of Minnesota Industrial Relations Center. She completed Stanford’s Executive Education Program in August 2013.

Mark Shearer enters his 20th season with the Raiders and fourth in his present capacity. Shearer oversees the club’s revenue generating departments including corporate partnerships, premium/ticket sales and service, marketing, business development, analytics, and merchandise.

Shearer started with the Raiders in the merchandise department in August of 1999. He helped open more than 20 brick-and-mortar Raider Image locations as well as launch the team run, online store still owned and operated by the club today. In 2009, he was promoted to oversee premium/ticket sales and service and in 2013 started the business development department and revenue managements departments.

In July of 2017, Shearer was among the first to relocate to Las Vegas to oversee development of business operations. The team’s current offices are in Town Square and include an interactive Preview Center that is open to the public and highlights the stadium project.

A native of Sonoma, Calif., Shearer earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Management from California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in 1998. Shearer and his wife, Sandra, have two children, Avery and Nolan.

Richard Schuetz in the owner of Schuetz LLC, a gaming and regulatory consulting entity. Prior to this he was executive director of the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission, a position he held from 2015 to 2017. Before Bermuda he served a four-year engagement as a commissioner for the California Gambling Control Commission. Prior to this, Schuetz served for over 30 years in the casino industry, and in academic positions relating to the industry and its regulation.

Schuetz entered the industry working nights as a blackjack and dice dealer while attending college, and has since served in a great many capacities within the industry including operations, finance, and marketing. He has held senior executive positions in numerous jurisdictions across the United States, including the gaming markets of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno/Tahoe, Laughlin, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In addition, he has consulted around the globe.

Schuetz has served on the boards of Shuffle Master Gaming, the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino (where he was also president & CEO), and Casino Publishing. He sat on the International Advisory Board for the Institute for the Study of Gambling & Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno, and was the co-moderator of the Institute’s Executive Development Program, with Dr. William Eadington. He was named an Honorary Professor of Casino Marketing at the Baron N. Hilton School of Hotel Administration at the University of Houston; was the marketing columnist for Casino Executive magazine; and has taught casino management and regulation at the Ecole Hoteliere Lausanne in Switzerland, and at the University of Macau and Macau Polytechnic Institute in Macau, SAR China. Schuetz was the consultant to the city of Detroit as that city introduced casino gaming, and served in a similar position for the state of Kansas as that state introduced casinos. He has lectured throughout the world on the topics of gaming, gaming regulation, and casino marketing.

Mr. Schuetz received his degree in Business from the University of Nevada, Reno, and holds a Masters in Philosophy specializing in economic analysis from the University of Utah. Schuetz is also ABD PhD in Economics from the University of Utah, and his dissertation topic was on the “Nevada Experience in Gaming Regulation” for the period of 1945-1966. Schuetz has published over 100 articles on gambling, gambling regulation and casino marketing.

Schuetz currently lives in Florida and Pennsylvania.

Victor Salerno is a 38-year veteran of the race and sports book industry in the state of Nevada. Salerno was the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of American Wagering, Inc., until the company was sold to William Hill in July 2012. American Wagering, Inc. operated over 90 sports book operations in Nevada, in addition to Computerized Bookmaking Systems, which provided a computerized wagering and accounting systems to most of the casinos in Nevada. Upon the sale of American Wagering, Salerno became chairman of the board of William Hill US until February 2016.

Salerno currently serves as president of USBookmaking and USFantasySports. Launched in June of 2016, USFantasy Sports is a provider of state regulated Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) contests in Nevada and Colorado. USFantasy Sports is a skill-based daily fantasy wagering platform that combines elements of the traditional regulated pari-mutuel system with traditional DFS contests, which creates a fair, easy and transparent environment for all contestants. Just like in DFS, players score points based on their performance in a live game and participants can enter contests for athletes to Win, Place or Show among other multi-selection contests. USBookmaking is a sports book operator with an agreement in New Mexico to operate a sports book for the Santa Ana Pueblo.

Salerno is a legend in the race and sports book industry and is credited with initiating projects that grew Nevada sports wagering to its current success and popularity, including: first computerized book making systems (CBS), first sports bookmaking network hub operation in Nevada (Leroy’s), and recently expanded the sports wagering business with the launch of the very successful Leroy’s mobile sports wagering app. He also pioneered the development and use of self-service race & sports kiosks. On behalf of Nevada gaming industry trade associations, Salerno served as president of the Nevada Association of Race and Sports Operators, and as a member of the Nevada Pari-Mutuel Association’s Rates Committee. Mr. Salerno was inducted in 2015 into the American Gaming Association’s exclusive “Gaming Hall of Fame.”