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INFORMATION FOR THE JUDGING PANEL CATEGORY FOUR
NOMINEES INFORMATION
歐旭江, AUSTIN AO
Senior Technical Sales Manager Asia
The United States Playing Card Company
歐旭江, AUSTIN AO, Senior Technical Sales Manager Asia, The United States Playing Card Company
I was R&D software engineer in Taiwan for 3 year, back to Macau on 2008. I have been with The United States Playing Card Company(USPC) into the tenth year, witness the changes in the market and customer requirements. Thank you for the business network of USPC, I need to visit a lot of customers in US, Canada, Korea, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam… the purposes are involving Customer Service, Technical support, and Business Sales. Due to these experiences cross over with my R&D software engineer background, my all aspects have been fully upgraded.
Despite this, USPC is base in US and I am base in Macau, I need to handle a lot messages for negotiating with Asian customers by myself, and figure out business strategy with US team, means – US team and I are in difference culture, staying at difference country, using difference time zone and language, but we are on the same page – for getting each order and new business, we can talk/net meeting over day and night, whatever the opportunity closed won or lost. This is so proud to me.
高革義 CARLOS EDUARDO COELHO
Senior Associate
MdME
高革義 Carlos Eduardo Coelho, Senior Associate, MdME
Carlos – 35 years old – is an experienced Macau SAR qualified lawyer who has joined MdME in 2018 after working in another leading law firm in Macau.
Carlos is a key contact in MdME gaming practice where he provides corporate and regulatory assistance to gaming equipment manufacturers, service providers and other relevant players in the industry.
Carlos current experience covers assisting online and mobile gaming companies, sports betting licensees, gaming operators, and industry investors throughout the APAC region. He further acquired a relevant track record in gaming related intellectual property matters, including in patent related contentious and non contentious matters.
Its Macau based gaming expertise has allowed him to be sourced by gaming players around the globe, but particularly throughout Asia, to assist in cross border matters.
Currently Carlos is also assuming a relevant role in Lex Mundi Gaming Solution, a network of law firms covering more than 25 gaming jurisdictions around the world, which is headed by MdME. Carlos is ranked as Rising Star – M&A at IFLR’s 2017 guide and as a Leading Lawyer Corporate/M&A at Asia Law Profiles 2017.
MAULIN GANDHI
President
Tangam Systems
Maulin Gandhi, President, Tangam Systems
Maulin is the President of Tangam Systems, a global leader in table games optimization software. In the past 10 years, Tangam has created and launched two product lines – TableEye and TYM. Both of these products are unique, first-to-market solutions and the intellectual property underlying these products are based on software algorithms. As one of the founding executives, Maulin has been with the company since 2004 and a driving force behind the growth of Tangam.
Today, Tangam’s flagship product TYM (Table Games Yield Management), is trusted by some of the largest casinos to maximize profit with clients in every major gaming jurisdiction. TYM optimizes over 4,400 tables in 7 countries and continues to grow in double digits every year. To date, TYM has received multiple industry awards for innovation.
Over the next 3 – 5 years, Maulin’s contribution will help transform casino table games operations into a more dynamic and data-driven culture. Operations managers will leverage software tools and data to make better decisions, improve financial performance, productivity and the guest experience. Along with this, under Maulin’s direction, Tangam’s award-winning Tangam Academy will continue to publish more online content on the table games yield management, which will remain free for anyone across the globe to access. This unique platform will help managers with an in-depth understanding of yield management principles and apply Tangam’s learning to their operations.
These values reflect Maulin’s and Tangam’s founding executives culture of innovation. Maulin received his Bachelor’s and Masters from the renowned McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He specialized in Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence.
NIHIT KANUNGO
Subject Matter Expert
Zensar Technologies
Nihit Kanungo, Subject Matter Expert, Zensar Technologies
Casino games are undergoing a major shift in last 6- 7 years from traditional blind spinning to bringing strategy and skills based techniques into gambling. The omnipresent need of the player to feel “in-control” of the outcomes is the driver for this shift. To achieve this, both concepts and technology solutions are changing rapidly. Also, the need for game providers and players to understand the principles is more than ever before and helping to teams around globe will always be a concern of the industry experts and that is where I step in with mindset to eliminate these kind of dependencies and raise more and more people across globe to give the players a mind-blowing experience with amazing games and potent casino softwares within the jurisdictions limit.
Some long sessions with the team in gaming conferences and individual meetings in last 2 years, now casino developers and the operators are really focused on what kind of the game the players will play and spend rather to go with the traditional gaming aspects. I have been glad to develop the personnel’s who supports each other in casino game certitude and innovation to deliver the great games with awesome player experience.
I have been instrumental in providing expert opinion on the Casino Gaming Industry trends and the adoptions that game providers should undertake , in order to stay in lead and will continue to do same for all the members of industry in future whether it be player, game developer, jurisdiction authorities, Operators, and more.
李霸基 LEI PA KEI, MIKE
Director of Slot Operations
MGM Cotai
李霸基 Lei Pa Kei, Mike, Director of Slot Operations, MGM Cotai
Mike is a highly educated team leader who has proven himself to have an in-depth knowledge of the slot industry. He is keen to learn and always willing to share his knowledge and experience with his team members.
Mike serves as Director of Slot Operations, who successfully facilitated the pre-opening project for MGM COTAI, containing 1200 electronic gaming machines. He is responsible for project planning, team management, floor layout configuration, and slot performance optimization.
With over 12 years industry experience and strong network connections, Mike built a highly skilled gaming team dedicated to take on new challenges, he selected the latest innovative technologies to meet player expectations, and meanwhile delivering an amazing entertainment experience to the slot player.
Mike is also active in sharing his knowledge in the local community especially in the tertiary education sector to support local talent development within the gaming industry. Mike has conducted a workshop at University of Macau with their Hospitality and Gaming Management students to share his experience in managing slot operations, he also organized for MGM to conduct a career talk at Macau Polytechnic Institute for graduates looking to enter the industry and more recently has been involved in initial discussions with City University of Macau to assist in the development of a potential new slot training course at the university.
Mike had also been recognized from the local business community in November last year, he was awarded with the Excellence Award for “New Talent” from the Business Awards of Macau 2017.
Mike’s high work ethic and dedication to share his knowledge has contributed greatly to the success of the business and will ensure the continued development of local talent in the future.
LEONG WENG SANG, VINNI
Chief Executive Officer
Winson Group
Leong Weng Sang, Vinni, Chief Executive Officer, Winson Group
Vinni, Leong Weng Sang, CEO, and founder of Winson Group （Macau） Limited, returned from the United Kingdom at the age of 24 when he noticed the potential opportunity in the IT area of Macau Gambling Marketing.
Winson Enterprise Solutions Limited, a division of Winson Group which founded in 2016, was a Macau-based technology services organization that has made a serious commitment to building a world-class and sustainable business in Macau and the region to support the growing dependency on critical IT services.
After entering into the agreements with GEG and Wynn Macau in 2017, Winson Enterprise Solutions Limited just makes the new progress with MGM Macau and becomes the distributor of Veridocs U.S. at the beginning of this year.
Through the unremitting efforts of the management and staffs, Winson Enterprise Solutions Limited has developed into a comprehensive business company with professional Solutions and IT Services.
ARI MIZRACHI
SVP of Operations & Casino Strategy
Tangam Systems
Ari Mizrachi, SVP of Operations & Casino Strategy, Tangam Systems
Ari Mizrachi is the Senior Vice President of Operations & Casino Strategy at Tangam Systems. He brings nearly 15 years of experience in Casino Operations. Ari has been pivotal in many well-known casinos across North America including in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.
From the beginning of his career, Ari was integral in his role and department and as a result, advanced quickly. While at Seminole Hard Rock, he helped in the opening of the poker room, created the policies and procedures, and trained the staff. The success of the poker room presented him with more opportunities at MGM Grand and then The Las Vegas Hilton where he had upwards of 250 staff.
With his data-driven approach, Ari became the Director of Poker/Keno/Simulcast at Harrah’s and then advanced to be responsible for the strategy and execution for all channel marketing for Atlantic City. He then became the Senior Director of Table Games and Poker Operations at Parx where he grew revenues significantly.
Ari now works closely with casinos to focus on data-driven decision making to solve their business challenges and drive improvements to table games performance and productivity. Several operators are already experiencing a 10-15% increase in EBITDA and have posted record-setting months.
Ari has years of experience on the gaming floor and has utilized data to drive change at all the casinos he’s worked in. He is viewed as a leader in the industry and featured in many events, most recently as a moderator at the ASEAN Summit and a presenter/panelist at the Indian Gaming Tradeshow and Convention.
MATTHEW ALAN RIGHTON
Regional Account Manager Asia
SG Gaming Asia Limited
Matthew Alan Righton, Regional Account Manager Asia, SG Gaming Asia Limited
– Was inspired to join the gaming industry during a family holiday to Macau at age 16 and was driven towards this goal from that holiday on.– Starting in the industry at the age of 18, I have now been in the industry for 10 years, 5 of which has been in Asia. When I came to Macau at the age of 23 I was moving out of home in Australia to a foreign land I now call home.
– I Manage a large portfolio of products for my customers including; Utilities (shufflers), Electronic Table Games, Slots and Table Games
– I actively supply and promote all of these products ranges across Macau, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Saipan and Laos as well as multiple distributors.
– Right from starting with SG here in Asia, I had to adapt quickly from a slot background in my previous role in the Aristocrat graduate program to crossing the entire gaming floor of a casino.
– I take a long term relationship emphasis and aim to build friendships as well as a business relationship in which I aim to bring success to both the customer and SG.
– Helped increase SG’s market share across all product lines
– 2014 Budget in excess of 120%
– 2016 Budget in excess of 157%
– 2017 Budget in excess of 147%
– Sales Club Award Recipient 2014 and 2016
– Helped maintain over 90% market share in ETG in Korea
– First to sell Fusion when re-entering the Macau Market in the ETG segment
– First to get a confirmed order of our new Safe Bacc Shuffler in Asia
– Has successfully won the lion’s share of customers spend at recent openings.
– Helped Asia maintain the highest ASP for SG Globally
– Enjoys to work and play hard
Link to 10 Questions to Matthew Righton article
SAW CHUN HOWE 苏俊豪
Assistant Vice President of Gaming Technical Service
Imperial Pacific International Holdings Limited
Saw Chun Howe 苏俊豪, Assistant Vice President of Gaming Technical Service, Imperial Pacific International Holdings Limited
I was awarded with MGM Golden Lion Award (Employee of the Month) in Jan 2010 with the achievements of “Outstanding performance” and “Design on the mechanism of assisting slot tournament control”.
In Jan 2013, I won the only award from Aristocrat in participating a product improvements survey. The comment I provided was the problem of unsmooth video graphics on the player screen from one of their latest cabinet. These examples reflect exactly my passion towards gaming industry in having creative ideas and being innovative of enhancing player experience in gaming floor which is one of my best strengths.
Apart from that, gaming floor and gaming furniture design as well as staff development are another major area that I have been focusing on.
Over the past years, my main objective is to lead and develop potential leaders in this industry. I love my job, and this is the reason my passion never stops regardless of which company I’m working for.
I’m thankful to have many people that helps me throughout my career, giving me valuable guidance or even criticizes that passively made myself to achieve current milestone in my career.
There are plenty of talented people are not being revealed in the industry. I’m just only one of them who is lucky enough to be nominated. I never expect that I would be nominated to such honor, being shortlisted has considered being recognized regardless of the result.
余浩然 ALBERT YU
Chief Operating Officer
TGG (Takara Gaming Group)
余浩然 – Albert Yu, Chief Operating Officer, TGG (Takara Gaming Group)
Forward thinking, ambitious yet highly organized and attentive to details. I have worked & learned my way through hands on experience not only in Asia, but also throughout Europe & Americas in less than 7 years. Moving up the ranks in Aruze Gaming from a gaming amateur to General Manager (Macau) & Global Operations Manager (HK) has been an invaluable experience.
Joined TGG (Takara Gaming Group) in late 2017 as their COO in pursuit of a new career change where I get to utilize my past experience to open up more opportunities and hopefully to create a new gaming segment for both land based & online casinos (O2O).
I believe the sky is the limit for our TGG team, as a senior management of the company and a strong believer of team spirit, I aim to take on the challenges ahead in order to achieve our goal – to bring real entertainment for players.
Coming from a company with a long history to a semi-start up is no doubt risky and challenging, stepping outside the comfort zone, experiencing & accepting the inevitability of tribulations is a progress. Failures are part of the learning progress and being professional to all these are what drives me to strive for excellence.
Receiving the nomination itself is already an honour, winning the award will not be a personal accolade but a great tribute to my team, they are what makes Albert who he is today.