Sydney CEO retires and Perth chief promoted in Crown rejig

Blackstone-owned casino operator Crown Resorts has made a raft of senior leadership changes after promoting Perth chief executive David Tsai to a new, national c-suite role and announcing the exit of its Sydney chief.

Both Mr Tsai and retiring Sydney CEO Mark McWhinnie have served less than two years in their roles and were ushered in as part of an overhaul of the casino’s management in late 2022.

Mr McWhinnie — who had been retired for two years before joining Crown — had been tasked with leading a reform of the group’s Sydney operations after a NSW Independent Casino Commission found it unsuitable to hold a licence amid concerns over money laundering. Crown Sydney was eventually permitted keep the licence for its upmarket harbourside casino in April this year.

Crown’s group chief executive Ciaran Carruthers said the outgoing Sydney CEO’s leadership had been “instrumental in evolving” the business and looked forward to “continuing that focus” under its new chief.

He is to be replaced by Stanford Le, who has been leading the Snoqualmie Casino in Seattle as president and CEO since December 2019.

It comes months after Crown laid off about 1000 workers across Australia, with most of the job cuts taking place in Sydney and Melbourne. Reduced foreign tourism and gambling restrictions were blamed for the decision.

Crown employs nearly 20,000 people in Australia.

Also as part of the top-end leadership changes revealed Tuesday, Mr Tsai was promoted to a new role of president and group chief operating officer and will start August 1.

It’s understood he will remain in Perth, and will report directly to Crown’s group chief executive Ciaran Carruthers, who said he was “delighted” to announce the executive’s new role.

Taking up the role in his stead in an interim capacity and subject to regulatory approval will be chief financial officer Brian Pereira, also brought in amid the leadership overhaul, who was CFO at Perth Airport before joining Crown.

Crown said it would conduct a “global search” to fill the role.

As well as the two CEO changes Crown has added Gemma Allman as new chief government relations officer, Nicole Pelchen as chief technology officer, and Louise Tebbutt in a new chief people and culture role.

There are about 5000 people working at Crown Perth’s hospitality and gambling complex in WA, making it the State’s largest single-site employer.

Melbourne-based Mr Carruthers was brought in to run Crown from Macau in 2022 after the group was taken over by Blackstone for nearly $9 billion.