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Episode
510
BETTING ON BIG IDEAS:
How Taking Risks Can Reap Rewards
Featured Guest:
Stephen A. Wynn
Chairman & CEO, Wynn Resorts, Ltd.
Casino Developer Stephen A. Wynn is widely credited with transforming Las
Vegas into a world renowned resort and convention destination. As Chairman
of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Mirage Resorts, Incorporated,
Mr. Wynn envisioned and built The Mirage, Treasure Island, and Bellagio, boldly
conceived resorts that set progressively higher standards for quality, luxury,
and entertainment. Now, as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
of Wynn Resorts, Limited, Mr. Wynn has developed both Wynn Las Vegas which
opened on April 28, 2005 and Wynn Macau which opened in September of 2006.
Both are among the world's preeminent luxury hotel resorts. An expansion
of Wynn Las Vegas, Encore, is slated to open in late 2008.
Mr. Wynn began his career in 1967 as part owner, Slot Manager, and Assistant
Credit Manager of the Frontier Hotel. Between 1968 and 1972 he also owned and
operated a wine and liquor importing company. But it was an entrepreneurial
real estate transaction with Howard Hughes in 1971 that produced sufficient
profits for a major investment in the landmark Golden Nugget Casino. Once known
only as a "gambling joint," Mr. Wynn transformed the Golden Nugget
into a Four Diamond resort known for elegance and personal service. By 1973,
at age 31, Mr. Wynn controlled the property and began developing the Golden
Nugget as a complete hotel resort.
In 1978, Mr. Wynn used profits from the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas to build
the 506-room Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino on the Boardwalk in Atlantic
City. The resort became known for its elegant facilities, television ads featuring
Frank Sinatra, and its impressive lineup of superstar entertainment. From its
opening in December 1979, until its sale in 1986, the Atlantic City property
dominated the market in revenues and profits in spite of its smaller size.
In 1987, Mr. Wynn sold the Atlantic City Golden Nugget, which had cost $160
million, to Bally for $450 million and turned his creativity to developing
what would become the company's flagship property — The Mirage. Opened
in November 1989, the elegant hotel, with its imaginative erupting volcano
and South Seas theme, ignited a $12 billion building boom that catapulted Las
Vegas to America’s number one tourist destination and fastest growing
city. In 1991, Golden Nugget Incorporated was renamed Mirage Resorts, Incorporated.
In October 1993, Mr. Wynn opened Treasure Island, establishing a new paradigm
by which casino theme resorts are designed. At the front corner of the resort,
the Battle of Buccaneer Bay was acted out on a full size pirate ship. Inside,
the Four Diamond property, with its romantic tropical theme, is one of the
city’s most electrifying casino resorts.
In October 1998, Mr. Wynn raised the bar again when he opened the opulent Bellagio,
a $1.6 billion resort considered among the world's most spectacular hotels.
With its sumptuous guest rooms, high end retail stores, and traditional European
feel, Bellagio appealed to an audience that long overlooked Las Vegas as a
vacation destination. Today, visitors line the street in front of the hotel
to watch another Steve Wynn attraction, the "Dancing Waters" — shooting
fountains, choreographed to music, that "dance" on the
hotel’s 8.5 acre man-made lake.
In 1999, Mr. Wynn brought Mirage Resorts' standard of style to beautiful
and historic Biloxi, Mississippi where he oversaw development of the 1,835-room
Beau Rivage. Blending Mediterranean beauty with Southern hospitality, the resort
was the centerpiece of a building boom that established Biloxi as a regional
tourism center along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
In June 2000, Mr. Wynn sold Mirage Resorts, Incorporated to MGM for $6.6 billion
and purchased Las Vegas' legendary Desert Inn Resort and Casino. The
Desert Inn was closed in August 2000 and, on this site, Mr. Wynn began developing
Wynn Las Vegas, a 2,700-room luxury casino resort that has inspired yet another
wave of development on the Strip. Concurrently, Wynn Resorts developed its
Asian flagship casino resort in Macau, China where the company has been awarded
a 20 year concession by the Macau government. In 2005, the Association of Travel
Marketing Executives awarded Mr. Wynn the ATLAS Lifetime Achievement Award
for his innovation in building resorts in Las Vegas.
Mr. Wynn is active in the community and is Chairman of the Advisory Board to
the University of Utah's Moran Eye Institute. He also serves as a trustee
of his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, and serves on the Board
of the George Bush Presidential Library.
2006 has brought many accolades to Mr. Wynn. In May, Time Magazine recognized
him as one of the "World's 100 Most Influential People," and
he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania's
250th Commencement Ceremony in recognition of his transformative vision of
Las Vegas (he has also received honorary doctorates from the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas and Sierra Nevada College in northern Nevada).
In late October, President George W. Bush appointed Mr. Wynn to serve on the
Board of Trustees for the world-renowned John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts in Washington, DC and in November he was inducted into the American Gaming
Association's (AGA) Hall of Fame.
Stephen A. Wynn was born in New Haven, Connecticut on January 27, 1942. He
graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University
of Pennsylvania and, in 1963, married Elaine Farrell Pascal. They have two
daughters, Kevyn and Gillian.
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