Hornbuckle’s Hall of Fame rise began at UNLV
Bill Hornbuckle remembers being a community college student in Connecticut when he saw a commercial advertising UNLV’S hospitality college during a broadcast of a UNLV basketball game.
Only two months later, he moved to Las Vegas with friends and $22 in his pocket, soon walking onto UNLV’S campus as a business major and working on the Strip at night.
Hornbuckle used that UNLV education to launch a career in hospitality, where he’s now president and CEO of MGM Resorts International. Last week, he inducted into the Nevada Business Hall of Fame by the university’s Lee Business School.
“If there’s ever a story of somebody (who) worked this town and it worked, it’s my story and so ... I can share that with UNLV and the students,” Hornbuckle said during the ceremony at Four Seasons. “I hope to think that someday, people will look and say, (if) that guy from a small community college in Connecticut can do it, I can do it.”
The business school held its Nevada Business Hall of Fame ceremony Thursday after a seven-year hiatus. Former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones Blackhurst and Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley were also inducted. The hall is a who’s who of notable business leaders, including: former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman (2012); Las Vegas Sun founder Hank Greenspun (2005); real estate mogul Howard Hughes Jr., credited with the development of Summerlin (2003); and William S. Boyd, CEO and Chairman of Boyd Gaming (2005).
Daniel Lamarre, executive vice chairman of the board for Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group, which oversees the six Cirque du Soleil shows on the Strip, was also recognized by the business school as the 2024 Lee Thought Leader.
UNLV President Keith Whitfield opened the ceremony with remarks on the campus’s recovery and need for celebration since the Dec. 6 shooting that left three professors — two under the business department — dead and another critically injured.
Whitfield lauded the resiliency of faculty and staff within the Lee Business School, housed within the Frank and Estella Beam Hall where the shooting occurred. He also emphasized that it’s important in times of darkness to find moments of hope that can help with healing, citing the hall of fame awards as one such occasion.
“In the face of unbelievable adversity — I like to say that it was the darkest day in the history of our university — you all have come together to support our students and your colleagues and served as a beacon of hope and light for so many,” Whitfield said Thursday night. “Though we will never forget what happened on that particular day, we are advancing our recovery and we’re doing it together, we’re doing it like Rebels do it.”
It certainly was a night of celebration for the three inductees, although Foley was missing due to business with English soccer team AFC Bournemouth, which he acquired last year, said Kerry Bubolz, president and CEO of the Vegas Golden Knights. Bubolz accepted Foley’s award on his behalf.
After taking the stage, dappled in UNLV’S signature red and white colors, Hornbuckle recounted his days working at Strip casinos in the 1970s and being impacted by encounters he had with prominent figures such as businessmen Barron Hilton, Steve Wynn and Kirk Kerkorian. Stowe Shoemaker, dean of the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, said in a video that Hornbuckle has “never forgotten that his success is due to UNLV” throughout his rise in the hotel industry.
“I think it’s a good thing to get the community together, and I’m proud and happy to be a part of it, so thank you for this honor and hopefully we’ll keep our part of this deal,” Hornbuckle said before exiting the stage.
And though Blackhurst may not be a UNLV alum herself, the executive director of the UNLV Black Fire Leadership Initiative had much to say about the university’s place in Las Vegas.
Her speech was preceded by a short video where friends and associates touted her achievements, such as being the first female mayor of Las Vegas and supporting the city in its rise as a tourist destination. But almost immediately after stepping on stage, Blackhurst reminisced on UNLV’S beginnings, when it was merely a single building off Maryland Parkway that she saw after first landing in Las Vegas decades ago.
Blackhurst said Las Vegas was built upon the tenets of innovation, collaboration and elevation, and it is why UNLV remains crucial to the city’s survival.
“This college is so important to the future of Nevada,” Blackhurst said. “This college is the foundation of who we can be.”