2009 Lottery Industry Hall of Fame Members
Gerald AubinExecutive Director of the Rhode Island Lottery
Country: USA |
Gerald S. Aubin is the third Director to lead the Rhode Island Lottery, appointed to the position in May 1996. Prior to overseeing the state’s Lottery, Gerry served 21 years as a police officer for the City of Providence, Rhode Island, retiring as Deputy Chief of Police, and then served as the Director of the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy.
Under Gerry’s leadership as the Rhode Island Lottery Director, revenues increased more than fivefold, growing from $456 million to $2.5 billion. Payment to the state’s General Fund more than tripled, increasing from $90.4 million to $344.3 million. Gerry has implemented several procedural and management ideas at the Lottery to provide proactive security measures, as well as ensure ongoing upgrades and maintenance to technology systems that serve the state’s 1,200 Lottery Retailers. As a result, the Rhode Island Lottery employs some of the most advanced systems available to meet the state’s needs, and enjoys the benefit of new games, often designed specifically for the Rhode Island consumer. During Gerry’s tenure as Director, the Rhode Island Lottery has progressed from offering five instant games a year to more than fifty. In addition to overseeing the increase in the number of monitor and on-line game offerings, Rhode Island’s Video Lottery program has grown with the number of VLTs increasing by more than 3,000 since he became Director. Upon becoming Director, Gerry developed a new model for the License Agreements with VLT Technology Providers, which has since been copied and implemented by many other states. He also instituted the Lottery’s first Play Responsibly Program and Helpline, as well as the Lottery’s first website. The sound practices employed by the Rhode Island Lottery earned consistent recognition by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for achieving the highest standards in government accounting and financial reporting. In doing so, the Rhode Island Lottery became the first state agency in Rhode Island to receive the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) Award and has been successful in receiving this award for twelve consecutive years. Gerry is currently Chair of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) Cashola Group, as well as Chair of the National Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) Security Sub Committee. He is also Past President of NASPL, Past President of MUSL, and Past Chair of both the MUSL Development Committee and the PowerBall® Group. |
Bill FoxRegional Vice President Sales, Scientific Games Corp.
Country: USA |
Mr. Bill Fox has dedicated over 37 years of his career to the advancement of services across multiple facets of the lottery industry. Bill is quite simply a significant part of our US lottery history having been there at the beginning, and making major contributions in the shaping of our direction along the way. His primary focus has always been the delivery of account management excellence, serving as a customer champion within multiple commercial supplier firms. His unique ability to understand the challenges and business needs of lotteries, and his unwavering commitment to bringing result-oriented solutions, is at the crux of this nomination.
In 1985, Bill helped shape and define the cooperative services model for the New York and West Virginia lotteries. Based on his understanding of the complexities of the business management structure, and the distribution model relationship with retailers, he contributed across multiple decision points to ensure the launch of these programs was not only successfully but sustainable. This experience of launching new complex programs was applied by Bill during his involvement in 12 lottery start-ups. His partnership-style approach to delivery of best practice recommendations for game launches, retail recruiting, and administrative reporting structures proved invaluable to getting lottery organizations across the country up and running on time. Bill has been with Scientific Games for over 15 years and is Regional Vice President of Sales, with daily strategic account management responsibility for the Delaware, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania lotteries. Before joining Scientific Games, Mr. Fox served in several senior management positions with GTECH (Vice President – North American Sales; Vice President – Customer Satisfaction; and Vice President – New Business Development), Gamma International (Executive Vice President, Board of Directors), and GameTec (President, Board of Directors). |
Risto NieminenFormer Chief Executive Officer of Veikkaus Oy
Country: FINLAND |
Risto has had an outstanding career in Veikkaus. First in charge of communications, Veikkaus was rated number one of all Finnish companies in communication strategy and operations. Later, as member of the Board of Managers, Risto had a leading role in building new company strategy including entering the Internet market as the first lottery in the world. After a short step in the digital television world, where Veikkaus is a co-owner of the Finnish Sports TV Channel that Risto helped to launch in summer 2001, he was elected as the CEO of Veikkaus on August 1, 2001.
When Risto started, Veikkaus was already known as a progressive company. However, since then Veikkaus has renewed it's strategy, organization and operational models. Veikkaus' operations are strongly based on Customer strategy that now includes the largest customer database and customer programme in the country. Veikkaus has, over the past eight years, become one of the most innovative and succesful lotteries in the world. Veikkaus and Risto have been very active in international gaming organizations and international co-operation. Member of the Executive Committee as Senior Vice President of WLA , and a former Executive Committee Member of EL , Risto has a broad experience with the international gaming markets. Veikkaus has also been very active in trying to build a new dialogue between lotteries and the European Union. Veikkaus with Risto Nieminen in charge is also hosting the next European Lottery Congress and Trade Show in Helsinki in 2011. Lastly, Risto was a top level athlete as a young man (100 meters record 10.5, javelin thrower and basket-ball player). INTERNATIONAL GAMING ORGANIZATIONS 2004—World Lottery Association, Member of the Board 2006—World Lottery Association, Vice-president 2003—World Lottery Association, Strategic Development Committee, Chairman 2001—European Football Pool, Member of the Board 2007—European Football Pool, President OTHER ORGANIZATIONS 2001—Council of Savonlinna Opera Festival, Member 2007—Council of Nordea Bank, Member 2005—Innoka (joint venture of Veikkaus and GTech), Member of Board 2005—Finnish Sport Institute, Member of Board 2002—2008 Tapiola Insurance Corporation, Member of Council 2005—Council of Sibelius Academy, Member 2004—Helsinki University Science Foundation, Member of Council |
Donald StanfordChief Innovation Officer at IGT
Country: USA |
Technology is the engine under the hood of the lottery industry, and Donald Stanford has long been one of the principal engineers behind that technology. Stanford has played a leading role in shaping and ensuring the modernization of the lottery industry in the United States and around the globe while propelling a start-up company into an industry leader.
A 30-year veteran of the lottery industry, Stanford was the Chief Technology Officer at GTECH from 1979 to 2002. He has played and continues to play a crucial role in changing the face of the industry during his time at GTECH. During Stanford’s 22 years with GTECH, the Company grew from a market share of 5 percent and sales of less than $1 million to a dominant worldwide market share of 70 percent and sales in excess of $1 billion by the end of 2002. At the beginning of his tenure at GTECH, Stanford was part of the group that designed, developed, and manufactured the first terminal specifically designed for online lottery application functionality. As it turned out, the creation of the first dedicated lottery POS terminal would change the face of the industry. While at GTECH, Stanford became the co-inventor/holder of six different patents, and GTECH garnered 15 patents under his direction – more patents in online lottery technology than any other company. Stanford guided the growth of GTECH’s technology organization from a software staff of four in 1979 to its current worldwide deployment of more than 1,000 IT professionals. From 1986 until 1989, Stanford served on the GTECH Corporation Board. Most recently, Stanford accepted the appointment as GTECH Fellow and Acting Chief Technology Officer after returning to GTECH in a consulting capacity. Stanford serves on several charitable boards and is President of the Board of the Times Squared Academy Charter School in Providence, R.I., which promotes excellence in math, science, and technology. He was appointed Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Brown University and in 1999 received the Black Engineer of the Year Award for Professional Achievement. In 1999, he also received the Honorable Thurgood Marshall award for community service from the NAACP. Stanford also serves on the board of the Rhode Island Technology Council and works in the area of promoting IT education for Rhode Island’s high school population. He received the Brown University distinguished graduate award in 2002, the highest honor bestowed by the Brown graduate school. |
Dr. Winfried WortmannFormer Managing Director of West Deutsche Lottery
Country: GERMANY |
After studying sociology and macro economics at the universities of Cologne and Berlin, Dr. Wortmann embarked on a career in banking. He was in investment banking between 1988 and 1994. He left a senior management role with Investmentbank of North-Rhine Westphalia in 1994 to become a managing director of Westdeutsche Lotterie ( the largest German state lottery). Dr. Wortmann has been sole managing director there since 1997.
Dr. Wortmann became a member of the World Lottery Association (WLA) executive committee in 2000 and served as vice president from 2001 to 2004. In 2005 he was elected as president of the European State Lotteries and Toto Association and was reelected to a second term in 2007. Dr. Wortmann remains Honorary President of the EL and has been chairman of the lottery product committee of the German Lotto and Toto Bloc since 1997. Dr. Wortmann’s leadership of the European State Lotteries Association (EL) came at an auspicious time. The regulatory framework in Europe has been in a significant state of flux for the past five years. The interests of the lotteries and member state governments needed leadership to preserve the stability and integrity of a system that produces billions of euros a year in funding for public interest good causes. By forging a greatly improved dialogue with the European Union Commission, Dr. Wortmann provided that leadership though dedication of time and sense of purpose, conviction, and vision. As a result, the European Lotteries now have a strong and respected voice impacting the political process at the European Union level in Brussels. |