Company: Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, CT
Entry Submitted By: The Zimmerman Agency
Company Description: Foxwoods Resort Casino is one of the premier entertainment destinations in the Northeast. As the largest resort casino in North America, Foxwoods offers a vast array of gaming in six casinos; AAA  Four-Diamond hotels, restaurants from gourmet to express, world-renowned spas, awarding-winning golf, state-of-the-art theaters, and exclusive retailers.
Nomination Category: Management Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Executive of the Year - Hospitality & Leisure

Nomination Title: Scott Butera, President and CEO

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2012 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Scott C. Butera currently serves as President and CEO of Foxwoods Resort Casino, the largest resort casino in the United States with $1.2 billion in annual revenue. In his role, Butera oversees all aspects of resort business operations including its gaming, hospitality, retail and entertainment. Butera is also the principal architect of a comprehensive restructuring of Foxwoods’ balance sheet.

Under his leadership, Foxwoods has responded smartly to recent economic and competitive challenges. Foxwoods has secured its financial positioning and achieved new levels of profitability by tightening its operations, renewing its customer service focus, and repositioning its consumer brand as a destination that is “Anything But Ordinary.”

Butera is a highly regarded restructuring specialist who also possesses a keen operating sense. Both were evident in 2012 as Butera forged tentative agreements with creditors to ease Foxwoods $2.7 billion debt burden and moved to set the casino company on a path toward sustained profitability.  Under Butera’s lead, the debt restructuring, a complex affair involving more than two dozen creditors, proceeded to potential resolution throughout the year and culminated with an exchange offer in early 2013 that would trim the property's debt load to about $1.7 billion.

Equally important, Butera engineered agreements designed to help Foxwoods develop responses to a dramatically altered gaming landscape. Faced with competitive threats from newly enacted gaming legislation in New York and Massachusetts, Butera sought ways to expand the Foxwoods visitor experience. A new retail complex is among the highlights of the effort along with revamped player awards programs, regionalized consumer marketing and a push to gain a greater share of convention and meeting business in the northeast. In addition, Butera looked to expand the Foxwoods brand through investments in new gaming markets. One of those investments involves a push to win approval for a license to develop a casino property in neighboring Massachusetts where Foxwoods already has high name recognition and a loyal customer following. Another investment is expected to put Foxwoods in a position to capitalize on the emergence of Internet gaming. The sluggish economic recovery and the availability of new gaming products in the region produced a challenging 2012 business environment for Connecticut casinos. Butera met the resulting pressure on revenues by carefully managing the Foxwoods workforce without diminishing morale or Foxwoods’ award winning service levels.

Prior to joining Foxwoods, Mr. Butera was President and Chief Executive Officer of Tropicana Entertainment Inc. and also served on Tropicana’s Board of Directors. He was primarily responsible for Tropicana’s successful financial and operational restructuring. Tropicana represents his second multi-billion dollar restructuring in the gaming industry. When he joined Tropicana in March 2008, the Company had just been denied a gaming license renewal in New Jersey and was  overleveraged and in danger of liquidation. Mr. Butera achieved a number offinancial and operational accomplishments that created a healthy and competitive company. These included navigating the Company through an efficient Chapter 11 restructuring, eliminating approximately $2.5 billion in indebtedness, securingapproximately $67 million in debtor-in-possession financing and raising $150million of exit financing. In addition, Mr. Butera attracted new financially stable ownership through extensive negotiations with creditors.

Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the nominee:

Scott Butera serves as President and CEO of Foxwoods Resort Casino, a position he has held since December 2010. The largest resort casino in the United States, Foxwoods earns $1.2 billion in annual revenue, with 2,230 hotel rooms, 150,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, more than 6,300 slot machines, 350 table games and 8,000 employees. In his role, Butera oversees all aspects of resort business including gaming, hospitality, retail and entertainment operations. Prior to joining Foxwoods, Butera was President and CEO of Tropicana Entertainment where he led the company out of Chapter 11 and successfully guided restructuring programs as an executive at Cosmopolitan and Trump Entertainment. Butera was also a leader in gaming, real estate and investment banking operations at UBS and Bear Stearns.