After inviting Zhan Spalding to join its senior leadership team in the freshly created general manager surveillance Queensland position in September and further proving its support for gender equality, The Star Entertainment Group is back with a fresh announcement. Allen & Overy, its appointed team of independent advisers, has just finished its first report. The news is good.
The Star, Ready to Initiate the Remediation Program
The casino giant is prepared to initiate its remediation program after it was established that it did not have the right to hold New South Wales casino license in Sydney. At the beginning of October, NSW Independent Casino Commission chairman Phillip Crawford also fined The Star $100 million for failing to prevent money laundering and criminal activities. Crawford decided to suspend the Sydney license at the end of a lengthy, four-month inquiry led by Adam Bell, senior counsel.
Allen & Overy was hired by The Star at the beginning of August. The advisers spent the last month reviewing a total of 46 documents, interviewing 20 staff members, and observing 12 hours of planning meetings. The law company explained it was critical for the Australian group to keep its authority and capabilities of their new in-house transformation office to guarantee the success of the remediation program.
The Group Understands the Challenges It Faces
After talking to a series of board members and executives, the team of advisers concluded that the company now fully grasps the “challenge it faces” in fixing the original causes that have led to its license being revoked. They added that The Star was fully prepared to restore trust in the industry and that it has shown its intentions to do so. These conclusions were issued in spite of the fact that the advisers did not interview new chief executive Robbie Cooke. The same report described the remediation program as “sufficiently developed” for the group’s board to consider putting it into practice. At the same time, the Allen & Overy report explained that there are still a few key questions that require an answer. For example, the group is still missing an update in terms of performance at the executive level performance. At the same time, The Star did not include a post-implementation phase in its timeline.
Newly appointed Nicholas Weeks from Wexted Advisor is the new special manager that will manage The Star Sydney for a minimum of three months. In the meanwhile, Allen & Overy will continue to keep an eye on all developments by getting input from Weeks and other persons that may be appointed to similar roles in the upcoming future.