2010 Lottery Industry Hall of Fame Members
James C. Kennedy, Jr.Executive Vice President, Group Chief Executive of Lottery, Scientific Games Corp.
Country: USA |
Jim Kennedy joined Scientific Games in 1985 as SG’s on-site account manager for the Colorado Lottery. From 1985 throughout the 1990’s, Mr. Kennedy worked alongside lottery professionals in states across the country designing thousands of games, and scores of marketing programs to learn the business from the giants of the industry from the ground up.
In 1999, he was named President of Scientific Games International’s Retail Solutions division and in 2000 Vice President of North American Sales and Marketing. In 2005, global marketing for the full-line of SG lottery products was added to his list, as well as new business development for the company’s on-line, Cooperative Services and instant lottery business segments throughout North America. Mr. Kennedy and his team hold a patent for the invention of the SGI Marketing, Analysis and Planning System, which today contains over 20,000 instant games. |
Connie Laverty O'ConnorChief Customer Officer, IGT
Country: USA |
Connie Laverty O’Connor is responsible for the review and enhancement of GTECH’s marketing processes, measurements, and information systems. Prior to joining GTECH in 2006, she served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Georgia Lottery Corporation.
Prior to that, Ms. Laverty O’Connor spent more than 30 years with the New York Lottery, with her final 14 years serving as Director of Marketing and Sales. During that period of direct responsibility for sales and marketing at New York Lottery, from 1990 to 2004, overall traditional (non-VLT) lottery sales tripled, from $2.058 billion to over $6 billion, and Instants sales increased fifteen-fold, from $200 million in 1990 to over $3 billion in 2004. That was a period of dynamic change in the lottery industry, and the largest lottery in the U.S. evolved its retailer relations, portfolio management, and game design in major ways. |
Friedrich SticklerFormer Managing Director of Austrian Lotteries, Honorary President of the European Lottery Association
Country: AUSTRIA |
Friedrich Stickler was appointed to the board of directors of Austrian Lotteries Ltd. in 1986. For the next 20 years, he was responsible for sales, marketing, public relations, law, and personnel.
In 2006, Mr.Stickler was appointed to the position of Deputy Managing Director of Austrian Lotteries. As President of the European Lottery Association, Friedrich Stickler has been at the vanguard of the movement that promotes preservation of a healthy regulatory framework in the European Union. Mr. Stickler is a member of the Executive Committee, and chairman of the Club Competition Committee, for the UEFA (union of European Football Association). He is president of the Austrian Soccer Association, Principal of the Trade Association of Lotteries of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, and served on the Intertoto/World Lottery Association Executive Committee until 1999. |
William ThorburnGroup Executive - Lotteries (International) at Tatts Group
Country: AUSTRALIA |
Bill Thorburn is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 20 years experience in the gaming and wagering industry. After working at Ernst & Young, Mr. Thorburn joined Queensland TAB Ltd. Bill Thorburn was appointed as Chief Executive of Golden Casket in 1995.
Mr. Thorburn was a key executive in the execution of the first super-long-term lease of a major lottery (the acquisition of a 65-year operating license of Golden Casket Lottery by Tatts Group in 2007). Tatts Group appointed Mr. Thorburn as Chief Executive of the total lotteries strategic business unit, Tatts Lotteries. Tatts Group acquired the long-term license to operate the New South Wales Lottery in April of this year. Mr. Thorburn is a member of the Responsible Gambling Advisory Committee in Queensland, a unique committee involving a tripartite arrangement with government, industry and the community. |