Silk picked as Crown casino chair
Blackstone taps super veteran
CROWN Resorts has tapped former AustralianSuper chief executive Ian Silk to oversee the operations of its flagship casino, appointing him as chairman of Crown Melbourne as it seeks to prove its suitability to hold a Victorian casino licence.
The gaming group – which US private equity titan Blackstone bought last month for $8.9bn, ending James Packer and his family’s decades-long involvement with the company – has also appointed former NAB and Allianz executive Helen Silver and corporate turnaround specialist Henriette Rothschild as directors.
All appointments are subject to regulatory approvals and follow Crown this week announcing it would open its gaming floor at its $2.2bn Sydney casino on August 8.
The trio will join Blackstone head of real estate Chris Tynan and incoming Crown Resorts CEO Ciaran Carruthers on the Crown Melbourne board.
The appointments come after the Victorian royal commission into Crown Resorts gave the company two years to prove it can become a suitable operator of its Melbourne casino. The near 30year-old complex has been operating under a monitor in some of the widest intervention powers seen in corporate Australia, after commission head Ray Finkelstein found the company had engaged in conduct that “was variously illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative”.
The company is facing a series of fines, including a penalty of up to $100m from the Victorian casino regulator, over “multiple breaches” of its responsible gambling obligations – including not “adequately supervising” atrisk patrons – at Crown Melbourne.
Austrac has launched legal action against Crown, accusing the group of more than 500 breaches of anti-moneylaundering and counter-terrorism financing laws – with each breach attracting a fine of up to $22.2m. In a statement of claim totalling 863 pages, revelations included Crown dealing with patrons involved in sex slavery – one as late as November last year, a month after Victoria’s royal commission concluded.
But Mr Finkelstein did not recommend an outright scrapping of Crown’s licence – despite Premier Dan Andrews saying he was not afraid to “tear it up” at the start of the royal commission.
Instead, Stephen O’Bryan QC has been appointed as Crown Melbourne’s “special manager” until next year.
In his first activity report, Mr O’Bryan said “considerable further work” was needed “to demonstrate the level of reform and embedded change the Finkelstein royal commission recommended”.
In a statement Crown said Mr Silk was “widely recognised as one of Australia’s most experienced business leaders, with deep expertise in governance, investment and risk management”. He oversaw Australia’s biggest pot of retirement savings as CEO of AustralianSuper from its formation in 2006 until his retirement last year.