Scientific Games Corporation announced that Kevin M. Sheehan, former chief executive officer and president of Norwegian Cruise Line, has joined Scientific Games because the company's new CEO and president. Additionally, he'll serve at the company's board of directors. Current Scientific Games CEO and president Gavin Isaacs turns into vp of the board of directors. Mr. Sheehan and Mr. Isaacs have assumed their new roles effective today following yesterday's approval by the board of directors.

"Today we're one company with three strong businesses - gaming, lottery and interactive. Our integration is behind us and our business strategies are delivering solid results. With our momentum building, I'm moving from an operational leadership position to a more strategic role, vice president of the board of directors. On behalf of my colleagues and the board, we welcome our new CEO and president, Kevin Sheehan. That is the precise time to grow our leadership team and feature someone of Kevin's talent, experience, and fiscal acumen take us to the following phase of growth and innovation," said Gavin Isaacs, Scientific Games board vice chairman.

Mr. Sheehan joins Scientific Games from Norwegian Cruise Line, where he served as CEO and president for seven years. Mr. Sheehan led the improvement and expansion of the company, presiding over strong sales and EBITDA growth and the company's initial public offering (IPO), some of the successful IPO's in 2013. He broadened the corporate's reach with new classes of ships including luxury cruising and led the corporate to industry leading profitably, which strategically positioned the company for continued longer term growth. Mr. Sheehan oversaw major initiatives including vastly improving on-board service and amenities around the fleet; expanding the line's European presence; repositioning two of the line's Hawai'i-based ships making a profitable business model; revitalizing top management with a mix of cruise industry and outdoors expertise; and using his extensive 30-year background within the business world to assist Norwegian post a pointy turnaround in profitability in the course of a tricky economic climate.

During nine years with Cendant Corporation, Mr. Sheehan held various senior executive roles including serving as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Cendant Corp's vehicle services division from January 2003 to May 2005, including global responsibility for Avis Rent A Car, Budget Rent A Car, Budget Truck, PHH Vehicle Management, First Fleet and Wright Express. He also served because the chief financial officer of Cendant Corporation from March 2001 to May 2003.

After leaving Cendant and previous to joining Norwegian Cruise Line, Mr. Sheehan worked at Cerberus Capital Management as a senior adviser within the assessment of multi-billion acquisition targets and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, leading the purchase of Hertz from Ford. 

Most recently, Mr. Sheehan served because the John J. Phelan, Jr. Distinguished Professor within the Robert B. Willumstad School of industrial at Adelphi University.

"This is an exhilarating time to sign up for Scientific Games," said Mr. Sheehan. "Scientific Games is the global leader in gaming, lottery and interactive innovation and that i stay up for building on that momentum to drive continued growth around the company. Scientific Games offers an unrivaled comprehensive suite of goods and services for our customers world wide and is definitely positioned to continue to grow."

"I am so pleased to welcome Kevin to Scientific Games and that Gavin will continue with the corporate in his new role.  With the corporate fully integrated, it's the right time to expand our leadership team in order to take full good thing about the brand new and growing opportunities open to an organization with our global scale and broad expertise.  Kevin's intellect and experience may be a useful asset as we move forward as one company," said Ronald O. Perelman, chairman of the board of Scientific Games.

Read More... [Source: Gaming Industry News]