Rick Arpin
Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller
MGM Resorts International
Rick Arpin is the Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller at MGM Resorts International. Rick’s
responsibilities include oversight of the Company’s Finance Shared Services Center, a 300-plus employee
unit responsible for most of MGM’s accounting transaction processes. In addition, he oversees all
aspects of external reporting and accounting policies. Rick regularly assists with corporate finance
matters and has been part of core teams that managed the $8 billion acquisition of Mandalay Resort
Group in 2005, the $750 million sale of Treasure Island in 2009, and raising almost $4 billion of debt and
equity capital from 2008 through 2010. He serves on the company’s Disclosure Committee and Section
404 Project Team.
Rick has been with MGM Resorts since 2002. Previously, he was with the Las Vegas office of Arthur
Andersen, where his audit and consulting clients included many of the major gaming operators along
with technology, healthcare and manufacturing firms. He was also instrumental in training and firm
policy matters related to gaming.
Rick is currently a member of the Governing Council of the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants (AICPA) and is a past member of the AICPA’s Financial Reporting Executive Committee, the
AICPA’s technical committee responsible for accounting pronouncements and guidance. He was also a
member of the task force that oversaw a major overhaul of the AICPA’s Gaming Audit Guide. Rick has
presented on, and written about, various industry and accounting matters and is a member of the
organizing committee for the Nevada Society of CPAs’ Annual Gaming Conference (and Chair twice) and
was also the Chair of the Steering Committee for the first ever AICPA Hospitality Industry Conference. In
2010, he was named to Treasury and Risk Magazine’s “40 Under 40” list. In 2013, Rick received the
Shared Services Thought Leader of the Year award from SSON.
Rick holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from the Lee Business School at the University
of Nevada Las Vegas and is a licensed CPA in Nevada. He is also a Chartered Global Management
Accountant. He is a member of the AICPA and the Nevada Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is
active in the community as a member of the Board of Directors of the UNLV Alumni Association, and he
actively supports UNLV athletics, the Lee Business School and Accounting Department, and as the Chair
of the Annual Junior Achievement Poker Tournament fundraiser.
Paul Chakmak
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer,
Boyd Gaming
Paul Chakmak is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Boyd Gaming Corporation, one
of the nation’s largest and most diversified casino entertainment companies. As Chief Operating Officer,
Chakmak oversees the operation teams for twenty-one Boyd Gaming properties in Nevada, Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Chakmak also oversees the company’s marketing
efforts.
Chakmak joined Boyd Gaming in February 2004 as Senior Vice President Finance and Treasurer. Shortly
after joining the Company, Chakmak assisted the Company in completing its $1.3 billion acquisition of
Coast Casinos in July 2004. After being promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
in June 2006, Chakmak led several key financing efforts, including securing a $4 billion credit facility in
mid-2007. Chakmak was promoted again in January 2008 to Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to joining Boyd Gaming in 2004, Paul Chakmak was a senior member of CIBC World Markets’ West
Coast Leveraged Finance Group. He led the firm’s debt origination and structuring group for various
sectors, including the gaming, lodging, and leisure industries. Chakmak has more than 18 years
experience in investment banking, specializing in structuring, underwriting and distributing senior debt
and high yield financing, and in providing financial advisory services. He currently serves on the Board of
Directors for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor’s Authority and the Nevada Resort Association.
Mr. Chakmak graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 1986 with a double B.A. degree in
Economics and Political Science.
Cedric Crear
Owner/Operator
Crear Creative Group
Cedric Crear is owner and operator of Crear Creative Group (www.CrearCreative.com), a
boutique-advertising firm based in Las Vegas. CCG provides strategic communications,
branding, corporate identity, web design and media production for multiple market segments.
Mr. Crear’s agency has received numerous awards and earned a reputation of providing the
highest level of value for marketing solutions. In partnership with McCarran International
Airport, Cedric is also owner of Crear Outdoor Advertising, which manages numerous billboards
throughout Southern Nevada.
CCG has partnered with mgmt one (www.Mgmt-One.com), a full-service lifestyle management
company specializing in the sports, publishing, entertainment, branding, and business
management industries to form One Marketing Group (OMG). Mr. Crear serves as OMG’s
President, overseeing branding and strategic marketing activities for clients including Ultimate
Fighting Championship (UFC), the world’s fastest-growing spectator sport and the top pay-perview provider of sporting events in history.
Mr. Crear has served as Chairman of the American Red Cross of Southern Nevada’s board for
over five years. He is a volunteer with the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation®, an organization
dedicated to improving the quality of public education for underserved youth in America, KB
Homes’ Citizen Advisory Board and is a member of the Nevada System of Higher Education
Board of Regents for District 1.
A native Nevadan, Mr. Crear graduated from Howard University. Mr. Crear and his wife, Keiba,
are the parents of two girls and reside in West Las Vegas.
Chris Giunchigliani
Clark County Commissioner
Clark County, Nevada
Chris is a 36 year resident, middle school special education teacher, and received her masters at
UNLV. She served 16 years as an Assemblywoman. During her term as a member of the State
Assembly, she was Vice Chair of Ways and Means, Chair of Elections and Ethics, Chair of Labor
and Management, member of Commerce, Taxation and the Legislative Commission. She is
finishing her second term as a Clark County Commissioner.
She currently serves as a member on the Regional Transportation Commission, Southern
Nevada Health District, Regional Flood Control District, Clark County Water Reclamation, Las
Vegas Valley Water District and The Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition.
Chris also formed the Maryland Parkway Coalition, made up of local businesses on Maryland
Parkway and near to UNLV. These business men and women, along with community partners
from the area, will be helpful in providing insight on the stadium and on other economic issues
in the area.
Chris and her husband hike, read, cook and travel. They have been to all seven continents and
over 80 countries. Otis "The Potus" their English bulldog is the newest family member.
Dallas E. Haun
President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board
Nevada State Bank
Executive Vice President
Zions Bancorporation
Dallas E. Haun is President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Nevada State
Bank, and Executive Vice President of the bank's parent company, Zions Bancorporation. Haun
joined Nevada State Bank in 2007, and brings more than 35 years of strong commercial banking
expertise and substantial managerial experience to his leadership position. Under his
leadership, Nevada State Bank was awarded the insured deposits of the failed Silver State Bank
in 2008 and the failed Great Basin Bank of Nevada in 2009. Nevada State Bank also acted as
Payout Agent in 2009 in the resolution of Community Bank of Nevada.
Haun began his banking career in Michigan, but soon came west and spent 20 years with
Harbor Bank of Long Beach, California, eventually serving as President and Chief Operating
Officer. Prior to taking the reins at Nevada State Bank, he managed California Commercial and
Private Banking Services for City National Bank in Beverly Hills, and served on the bank's
Executive Committee. A graduate of Michigan State University, he received his postgraduate
degree from the University of Washington's Pacific Coast Banking School. He also completed
the Executive Program at the Anderson School of Business at the University of California, Los
Angeles (UCLA).
An advocate of education, Haun is actively involved in Nevada State Bank's partnership with
Ruby Thomas Elementary School in Las Vegas, and encouraged the bank to sponsor school
breakfasts at Flag View Intermediate School in Elko. He serves on the Board of Trustees for the
College of Southern Nevada Foundation, the Board of Trustees for the UNLV Foundation, and
the Board of Trustees for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. As the state chairman for the
March of Dimes March for Babies in 2010 and 2011, he successfully led efforts to help the
organization raise funds to prevent premature births in Nevada.
KIRK D. HENDRICK
Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
Kirk Hendrick is the Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer for the Ultimate Fighting
Championship. He joined the company in 2002, and previously served as the organization’s General
Counsel and Chief Operating Officer. Kirk is part of UFC’s core executive team that has taken the brand
from a tarnished spectacle and turned it into the “fastest growing sport in the world”. With media
reports estimating the company’s value at over 2 billion dollars, UFC has become a worldwide success
story. Now focused on international growth and worldwide media content production, UFC produces
over 30 live events each year in arenas around the world, and broadcasts the events to a worldwide
television audience of over 850 million homes in 28 different languages. As part of his many duties, Kirk
has overseen virtually every facet of the UFC organization, including business and legal affairs, event
operations, government and regulatory affairs, and human resources. He also has negotiated, drafted
and advised on thousands of sports and entertainment agreements, including multi-million dollar
domestic and international television agreements, digital rights agreements, professional athlete
agreements, company acquisition agreements, arena agreements, and licensing agreements.
Prior to joining UFC Kirk was Of Counsel to the Las Vegas firm of Jones Vargas. Kirk's private practice
focused on gaming and sports law matters, primarily boxing and mixed martial arts. His clients included
World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Lennox Lewis, who Kirk helped form a promotional company that
allowed Lewis to become one of the first active boxers to be licensed as a promoter. Kirk also advised
Lewis' Lion Promotions in finding a suitable venue for the famous Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson bout that
was held in Memphis, Tennessee in 2002.
Kirk previously worked for the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, where he was recruited in 1993 to lead
a new Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit in Southern Nevada. Within its first 18 months, the Southern
Nevada unit saved taxpayers almost $4,000,000 and established a 100% conviction record of over 50
criminal defendants. After two years as a prosecutor, Kirk moved to the Attorney General's Gaming
Division that provides counsel to the Nevada Gaming Control Board and Nevada Gaming Commission.
While in the Gaming Division, Kirk was first promoted to Senior Deputy Attorney General for the
Division's Las Vegas Office, and later promoted to Chief Deputy for the statewide Gaming Division. Kirk
also served for three years as legal counsel for the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Kirk is a graduate of Chaparral High School in Las Vegas, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the
California Western School of Law in San Diego, California. He was a two-term student government
president at UNLV, and also served for many years on the Board of Directors for the UNLV Alumni
Association.
James Dean Leavitt
Attorney/Owner/Operator
The Law Office of James Dean Leavitt
James Dean Leavitt has been practicing law in Las Vegas since 1991. He earned his
undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in 1985, majoring in Speech
Communication Rhetoric. He has taught public speaking for the Calgary Board of Education, the
University of Idaho and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His law degree was earned in 1991
from the University of Idaho College of Law. Mr. Leavitt was a member of the National Moot
Court Team and served as a law clerk in the United States Attorney’s Office.
Mr. Leavitt began his legal career in 1991 with the law firm of Galatz, Earl, Catalano and Smith.
Mr. Galatz is universally recognized as the premier personal injury attorney in Las Vegas.
In 1993 Mr. Leavitt worked one year with the law firm of Goodman and Chesnoff.
Oscar B. Goodman is universally recognized as the premier criminal defense attorney in Las
Vegas and is also the former Mayor.
In 1994, the Law Office of James Dean Leavitt was founded, exclusively practicing criminal
defense. As an attorney Mr. Leavitt is best known for his ability to successfully negotiate cases
with the prosecution and argue passionately on behalf of his clients. His specialized training in
Speech Communication Rhetoric gives him a competitive advantage in court.
In 2004, Mr. Leavitt ran and was elected to the prestigious Nevada Board of Regents. Mr.
Leavitt was re-elected in 2010. Previously, Mr. Leavitt was unanimously elected by his fellow
Regents to two successive one-year terms as Chairman of the Board. The Board of Regents
govern the entire Nevada System of Higher Education. They approve budgets and set policies
for two Universities, four Community Colleges, one State College and one Research Institute.
This statewide public service has helped cement his reputation as one of Nevada’s most
important leaders and public figures and benefits each client he represents. As a Regent Mr.
Leavitt is best known for his passionate advocacy for necessary funding of the Nevada Higher
Education System.
Sean McBurney
Vice President and Assistant General Manager
Caesars Entertainment
As Vice President and Assistant General Manager for Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Paris
Las Vegas and Bally’s Las Vegas, Sean McBurney oversees gaming, food and beverage, security,
surveillance, risk management and retail operations. During his time in the gaming industry
Sean has made remarkable contributions at Caesars Entertainment specifically in the fields of
marketing and operations.
Mr. McBurney began his career at General Motors as a Mechanical Engineer. While at GM he
worked in Advanced Vehicle Development at the GM Technical Center and manufacturing at
the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant where he oversaw engine production.
After completing his MBA at Stanford, Mr. McBurney decided to join the gaming industry as a
President’s Associate for Caesars Entertainment in 2006. He quickly moved into Casino
Marketing as Vice President for Harrah’s, Flamingo, Imperial Palace and Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall.
While there he was responsible for all VIP sales and service efforts. In 2008, Mr. McBurney was
responsible for integrating Total Rewards into the recently acquired Planet Hollywood
property. He remained at the property to lead the casino marketing efforts of Planet
Hollywood as well as Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.
With the creation of Caesars Enterprise Shared Service organization Mr. McBurney was
responsible for the VIP efforts of 20 properties across 7 states as the Regional Vice President of
VIP Marketing representing over $1 billion in gaming revenues. While in this role he reengineered host programs to create greater specialization in sales and service delivery,
consolidated fragmented sales centers across the enterprise to better facilitate cross market
play and created a new player contact strategy to increase outbound contacts and improve
sales conversion rates.
Mr. McBurney holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering
University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University.
Mr. McBurney actively works with the Caesars HERO program and UNLV Mentoring Program.
In 2013 he was named a Rising Star by the Las Vegas Business Press.
Kim Sinatra
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Wynn Resorts, Ltd.
Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Worldwide Wynn, LLC
Ms. Kim Sinatra has been Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Wynn Resorts
Ltd. since March 2006. Ms. Sinatra also has been Senior Vice President and General Counsel of
Worldwide Wynn, LLC since January 2004. She also serves as an officer of several of its
subsidiaries. From January 2003 to January 2004, she acted as an independent consultant. Ms.
Sinatra served Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Caesars
Entertainment Inc. from January 2002 to January 2003 and served as its Senior Vice President &
Deputy General Counsel from May 2001 to January 2002. She served as Executive Vice
President and General Counsel of The Griffin Group from 1993-1996 and 1998-2001. Ms.
Sinatra practiced law with the New York office of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
as a partner from 1996 to 1998 and as an associate from 1987 to 1992.
Ms. Sinatra received her JD from the University of Chicago and BA in Economics from Wellesley
College.
Donald Snyder
Executive Dean of Strategic Development
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Donald Snyder, former Dean of the UNLV William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration,
brings tremendous real-world expertise to his leadership roles at the university – and in
particular, to his efforts to develop Las Vegas’ status as the “intellectual capital of the global
gaming industry”. After retiring as President of Boyd Gaming, Dean Snyder joined UNLV to
head up the hotel program in 2010. In July 2010, Donald D. Snyder was appointed interim dean
of the UNLV William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration. He was appointed Executive
Dean of Strategic Development July 1, 2013.
Mr. Snyder was previously the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Fremont Street
Experience, where he held the Chairman’s post on its governing board until August 2006. He
served from 1987 through 1991 as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of First
Interstate Bank of Nevada, the state’s largest full service bank at the time.
Mr. Snyder has been actively involved in numerous business, charitable and civic activities in
Southern Nevada. He has served on the boards of several gaming and non-gaming companies,
including current service on the boards of Bank of Nevada (which he co-founded) and its
parent, Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE: WAL); NV Energy (NYSE: NVE); Tutor Perini
Corporation (NYSE: TPC); and Switch Communications Group, L.L.C. (privately held).
As Chairman of the Board of Directors, and an active supporter of cultural and arts
organizations, Mr. Snyder has played an integral role in The Smith Center for the Performing
Arts since the incorporation of its charitable foundation, the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center
Foundation, in 1996.
Additionally, Mr. Snyder has served on numerous non-profit boards over the years and has
been formally recognized on several occasions for outstanding corporate and community
service. He presently serves on the boards of the Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation
(Chairman), Nathan Adelson Hospice (past Chairman), and Tournament Players Club at
Summerlin. His past board service in recent years includes the Nevada Development Authority
(past Chairman), UNLV Foundation (past Chairman), Council for a Better Nevada (past
Chairman), Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Nevada Resort Association and United
Way of Southern Nevada (past Chairman).
Michael Wixom
Attorney
Smith, Larsen & Wixom
In addition to his banking, corporate and commercial law practice, Mr. Wixom was appointed in
2005 by Governor Kenny Guinn to the board of Regents for the Nevada System of Higher
Education, a role that involves him in overseeing all of Nevada's public higher education,
including 5 community colleges, 2 universities, and a research institute. In 2006 he was elected
to represent District 6.
He worked for five years, concurrent with his law practice, as an instructor for the American
Institute of Banking. He served two terms as Board chair (2007-2008 and 2008-2009) and is
currently chair of the Business and Finance Committee and vice chair of the Investment and
Facilities Committee. He is also a member of the Cultural Diversity Committee. In July 2013, he
was chosen to serve on the UNLV Campus Improvement Authority Board of Directors.
Regent Wixom was born and raised in Blackfoot, Idaho. After graduating from Blackfoot High
School, he attended Idaho State University, where he majored in political science and
economics. He graduated from Idaho State University with a bachelor of science degree in
1980, earning High Honors. He later attended the University of Utah, College of Law, graduating
in 1986 as a William L. Leary Scholar, and was a member of the Utah Law Review.
He has practiced law in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1986, and is a shareholder in the law firm of
Smith Larsen & Wixom. His areas of practice include banking, real estate finance and
commercial transactions.