- Push-out Score determined
- After around 11 years in the position
- Praise and thanks for Murren
- Search for a successor
- Murren said 108 words
(exechange) — Las Vegas, Nevada, February 12, 2020 — Jim Murren, chief executive of MGM Resorts, leaves. As announced by MGM Resorts International in a news release on Wednesday, February 12, 2020, James J. (Jim) Murren leaves his post as chief executive officer at the global casino operator after around 11 years in the role, effective prior to the expiration of his contract.
Jim Murren’s contract ends December 31, 2021.
MGM Resorts will undertake a search for a successor.
No reason given
In the announcement, MGM Resorts did not explicitly explain the reason for Jim Murren’s move.
Precise information regarding Jim Murren’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Step down”
MGM Resorts said: “Jim Murren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, has informed the Company’s Board of Directors that he will step down from his position as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company prior to the expiration of his contract.”
Share price increase since January 2019
The announcement follows an increase in MGM Resorts International’s share price of 27% since January 2019.
In the position of CEO since 2008
Jim Murren became CEO of the Company in 2008.
Jim Murren was named Chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International in December 2008.
Murren joined MGM in 1998 after spending more than a decade on Wall Street, where he was regarded as a leading analyst in the hotel and gaming industries.
His arrival at MGM coincided with a period of dramatic growth for the company, including the acquisitions of Mirage Resorts and Mandalay Resort Group.
Murren serves as chairman of MGM China Holdings Limited, which owns MGM Macau and is developing MGM COTAI.
He also serves as chairman of MGM Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust.
He is the visionary behind CityCenter, the urban resort destination that opened on the Las Vegas Strip in 2009 featuring centerpiece ARIA Resort & Casino.
A native of Fairfield, Conn., Murren graduated from, and is a trustee of, Trinity College, where he majored in Art History and Urban Studies.
He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institution and on the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.
He is chair of the Leadership Board of the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.
He also is a member of the Board of Trustees for Howard University and a member of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of leading U.S. companies.
Murren served as the Chairman of the American Gaming Association from 2014 until 2017.
He was named a Responsible CEO of the Year by CR Magazine.
He is the recipient of the “Distinguished Leader Award” by the University of Massachusetts’ Isenberg School of Management and “Executive of the Year” honor by Casino Journal.
Under his leadership, MGM Resorts International was named among FORTUNE® Magazine’s World’s Most Admired Companies® in 2016.
Murren was also named to the Institutional Investor “2017 All-America Executive Team,” ranking as a Best CEO for Sell-Side.
Murren and wife Heather Hay Murren received the 2017 Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship.
The award is given to those who, by their example and business practices, have demonstrated a profound concern for the common good beyond the bottom line, acting as a force for positive change.
The Murrens are actively involved in assisting wounded warriors and their families through the creation of a Fisher House in southern Nevada.
Push-out Score determined
The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding the management change on a scale of 0 to 10.
exechange reached out to MGM Resorts and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 7.2020 ($).