2013 Lottery Industry Hall of Fame Members
Michael P. ConfortiPresident, Global Strategic Accounts & Corp. Dev., Scientific Games Corp.
Country: USA |
Michael Conforti is a well-respected and senior leader in our industry with 16 years of lottery experience and millions of miles of shuttle diplomacy. Recognition by the PGRI Hall of Fame members is a great honor for someone whose unique contributions have made a positive impact on the development of the international lottery industry.
As Senior Vice President of International Business Development, Michael is responsible for leading Scientific Games’ international business development initiatives across each of the company’s operating channels, including technology systems, instant game management services, interactive platforms, gaming products and services, and sports wagering. Michael was a key architect and strategic leader during Scientific Games’ entrance into the China gaming market in 2008. He remains a senior member of the team and continues to develop and expand the company’s product portfolio and overall business in the PRC. The company’s operations in China now employ more than 400, with Michael serving on the boards of both Scientific Games China and Citic Scientific Games, its largest joint venture operation in the country. His executive management experience, which includes legal, government relations, business and product development extends well beyond Asia. Throughout his career, Michael has served an instrumental role in the architecture of lottery business operations in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Most recently, Michael led a complex business privatization effort in Greece, helping to bring together a diverse group of industry leaders to form what is now the Hellenic Lottery. Michael’s significant contributions to numerous international lottery customers and their unique organizations make him one of the most respected and active globe trotters in our industry. Michael previously worked for GTECH Corporation as Vice President of International Business Development, then located in London. He managed a team of global professionals in the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia, and was responsible for developing the company’s bidding strategies, establishing its joint venture relationships and negotiating all related commercial agreements. Prior to joining GTECH, Michael served as a Director at Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly (BMSK), a leading Washington, DC-based Public Affairs Company. Michael is also a co-founder and board member of URU Technologies Corp, a company that develops products and services for the access control and identity management industry with patents issued in more than a dozen countries. Michael is an attorney and member of the Virginia State Bar and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Lawrence University of New York and a Juris Doctorate from George Mason University School of Law of Virginia. Michael and his wife Lynn have been married for 21 years and he is the proud father of two children—Daniel 17 years and Timothy 12 years. |
Margaret R. DeFranciscoSenior Vice President, Corporate Development, Pollard Banknote Ltd.
Country: USA |
Margaret DeFrancisco’s service to the Lottery industry began when Governor George Pataki appointed her Director of the New York Lottery in 1999. She served in that capacity until January 2004, when she was hired to lead the Georgia Lottery Corporation, serving as President and CEO until mid-November 2012.
Currently, in her “re-wired” capacity, as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, Margaret helps shape Pollard Banknote’s corporate strategy as the company continues to explore innovative and viable avenues for increasing lottery revenues and funding for worthy causes. She considers herself fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with extraordinarily brilliant teams at both lotteries and now at Pollard, who together produce outstanding results. In Georgia, during her nearly nine-year tenure, sales grew from $2.6 billion in FY2003 to $3.8 billion in FY2012, with profit growth from $745 million to $901.3 million. Highlights include: the cross-selling of Powerball and Mega Millions; expansion of the promotional opportunities with the Atlanta Falcons and the NFL, and other sports and community sponsorships. Two lottery-run retail locations were established in the main terminal of the world’s busiest airport (annual sales nearly $8 million). Annual instant game sales grew from $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion, aided by the launch of the most successful $10 game in GLC history and the launch of the first $20 price point. Daily cash, club keno games were restructured and reintroduced; annual keno sales increased from $47 million to $174 million. To begin an ongoing strategy of attracting younger and infrequent players, a statewide music search promotion was conducted; the subsequent live award show won an Emmy in June 2012. As in New York, the lottery introduced direct mail couponing to player and retailer households. Finally, she directed the complete overhaul of the telemarketing/inventory management system of the instant product category; joined the world of social media, and launched internet wagering with a player debit card. In New York, sales grew from $3.6 billion to $5.4 billion, with profit growth from $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion; launched New York’s inaugural program of video gaming at racetracks across New York, executing legislation passed in the wake of 9/11. That legislation also allowed the introduction of Mega Millions in 2002, evolved from The Big Game. The design and promotion of increased payout of instant games (within statutory limits) increased annual ticket sales from $900 million to $2.4 billion. New Yorkers celebrated the new millennium (in 1999 and 2000) with the largest jackpot in New York’s history, with a statewide televised drawing from Times Square, New York City. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the State University of New York. An active Rotarian and firm believer in community involvement, she has served on several community and business boards, including, of course, NASPL, where she served as President in 2009-2010, and co-chaired the the Joint National Game Development working group and the Government Relations Committee. |
Alan ElandFormer Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of North America,
GTECH Corp. Country: USA |
Alan Eland has contributed 28 years to creating and delivering outstanding operations services to the North American lottery business. Alan represents the core values of this highly scrutinized category—integrity, systems reliability, data accountability, consistency of retail service and sharing of best practice operations. He is metrics driven, committed to operational excellence and superior retail execution and has contributed to the consistent growth of the North American business over the years. Alan deserves to be this year’s recipient of the PGRI Hall of Fame award.
Alan is responsible for directing all of GTECH’s North American operations. This includes managing GTECH’s P&L for all North American lottery customers’ businesses (representing $30 billion in sales). He leads over 3,000 employees, directs client services, site operations and all retailer-facing communications networks – including the call centers of North America, the primary and back-up data centers and over 200,000 points-of sale nationally. Alan directs the delivery of all product lines in North America and delivers over 60% of GTECH’s revenues, excluding Lottomatica’s Italian business revenues. Alan began his career in the field enabling him to understand first-hand the challenges that retailers and vendor operations staff face every day. In 1986, Alan moved into the position of Marketing Supervisor upon contract award to support the newly created California Lottery. He went on to serve as Systems Coordinator in California and then Project Manager in Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Louisiana and Texas. Between 1992 and 1998, Alan served as GTECH’s General Manager in Texas where he delivered an innovative and collaborative management solution to support the newly formed Lottery. In 1998, Alan was asked to take on the role of Eastern Regional Vice President, overseeing operations in GTECH’s largest region. Alan’s level of responsibility continued to increase, becoming Vice President and General Manager for GTECH’s Gaming Solutions Department, where he was responsible for managing Spielo, a Canadian-based commercial gaming products manufacturer, and leading the acquisition of Atronic, Europe’s largest slot machine manufacturer. In 2011, Alan took over operations of GTECH Printing Corporation, where he was a driving force behind the cohesive coordination of all products and services through GTECH’s local site operations network to deliver cost-competitive printing solutions to our customers. A year later, Alan was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of North America and President of GTECH Printing Corporation. In this dual role, Alan leads GTECH’s commitment to provide technology and service solutions along with day-to-day operational management support to clients throughout North America. He has led GTECH Printing to become the fastest growing Instant Ticket company in the world. Never one to seek the limelight, Alan is proud to serve the industry, and to serve the mission of lotteries which exist solely to raise funds for good causes. Alan and his family are Guardian sponsors for The Phoenix House of Rhode Island which is committed to protecting and supporting individuals, families, and communities affected by substance abuse and dependency. |
Jim HaynesFormer Director of the Nebraska Lottery
Country: USA |
Jim Haynes has served as the Director of the Nebraska Lottery since his appointment in February of 2004. He began his career with the Nebraska Department of Revenue in 1991, serving as Lottery Investigations Supervisor from 1993-1999. From 1999 to 2000, he served as Personnel Manager for the Department of Revenue. Prior to joining the Department of Revenue, he was a Lincoln Police Officer for 16 years. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Since beginning as Director in 2004, the Nebraska Lottery has achieved record sales during each year of his tenure. Jim has also worked to consolidate three separate government agencies into one integrated business model. In addition to his responsibilities as Lottery Director, Jim serves as the Director of Charitable Gaming (since 2001) and is the Acting State Athletic Commissioner (since 2010). Jim also serves on the Board of Directors for both the Multi-State Lottery (MUSL) and the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL). Jim is a Past President of both the Multi-State Lottery (MUSL) and North American Gaming Regulators Association (NAGRA). He recently accepted an invitation to sit on the World Lottery Security and Risk Management Committee. Jim is currently the Chair of the MUSL Security and Integrity Committee, working over the past four years on a virtual security solution for online lottery, moving away from bricks and mortar security, providing a cost saving for lotteries and vendors. Jim has played a key role in the progress made by U.S. lotteries to collaborate on multi-state games and promotions. The move to cross-license the two big jackpot games has created two fully national games, with all the states that sell lottery now also selling both Powerball and Mega Millions. The change in the price of Powerball tickets from $1 to $2 was a challenging decision for lotteries and has created the foundation for differentiating the multi-state products and expansion of the portfolio of multi-state games. As president of MUSL during in the 2012 to 2013 period, and as Chair of the Powerball Group in the 2011 to 2012 period, Jim played a key role in shepherding the progress towards a collaborative and modernized approach to managing the multi-state games, and positioning the U.S. industry for accelerating the growth of national lottery brands, promotions, and distribution systems. As a past MUSL president and Powerball Group Chair, Jim continues to foster and encourage a closer, more collaborative working environment between MUSL members and the Mega Millions Consortium. |
Bernadette LobjoisSecretary General, European Lotteries Association (EL)
Country: SWITZERLAND |
Bernadette started organizing the first seminars in 1993 and has since intensively developed the educational program adding workshops and working groups. The Association has been organizing the Marketing, Internet & New Media, Security and Legal Seminar on a yearly basis. Some of the seminars are carried out jointly with the WLA, however, the organization of all these events is done by the EL team in Lausanne. In 1998 the ELU (The European Lottery University), an intensive 5-day education and training program was launched, which has been very successful and always attracts a high number of participants. Since its introduction more than 800 participants joined the ELU in different venues throughout Europe. In 2013 Bernadette launched the “Sport Immersion,” a brand-new educational program designed for newcomers and development- oriented professionals of the sports betting industry. In 1997 she put in place the Legal Working Group by recruiting an expert Lawyer based in Brussels, followed in 2007 by the set-up of an EU Representation in the capital of the European Institutions. The General Secretariat in Lausanne is also in charge of all administrative matters of the Brussels office.
At the same time, Bernadette also launched the EL magazine, which is translated into the 4 languages of the Association. The first issue was published in 1992. The European Lotteries first website was put in place in 1997 and completely reviewed recently, offering Members a more attractive and interactive platform. She played an active part in the development of the Association and the commissioning of several studies relevant to the European Lotteries. The first economical study was realized in 2006 and since 2007, the ELISE data is published once a year, which effectively represents our Association. Bernadette also organized the yearly European Lottery draw which was broadcast on Eurovision for a number of years until 2003. The European Lotteries organize a Congress biannually and in between the Industry Days are held. Bernadette is assisted in all organizational aspects by a small efficient team. During this period and according to the European community development, Bernadette highly contributed to the growth of the Association by introducing activities such as Seminars, Working Groups, and the EL magazine. She is also very much involved in the organization of the EL Congresses / Industry Days. The European Lotteries have grown a lot since 1990 when it comprised 28 Regular Lottery Members, compared to 81 Regular Members today representing 46 countries (including 2 Members in Morocco). Before joining the European Lotteries, Bernadette was employed by different Swiss and international companies based in Switzerland for which she also set up networks and points of sales in the Middle East and Europe. She has a degree in Public Relations and obtained a Master in Business Administration in 1999. |
Jean-Luc Moner-BanetGeneral Director, Société de la Loterie de la Suisse Romande, President of the World Lottery Association
Country: SWITZERLAND |
Jean-Luc Moner-Banet was appointed to lead Loterie Romande in 2007. Loterie Romande is a privately-owned association whose members are the Swiss cantons.The company operates all games of chance (apart from casinos) within Suisse Romande. Jean-Luc is a member of the board of Loterie Romande. Prior to his appointment as General Director, Jean-Luc was the Deputy Chief Executive, from 1998 to 2006.
Over the course of the following years, Jean-Luc served on numerous committees for the European Lottery Association and also the World Lottery Association. Jean-Luc was appointed to the WLA’s Executive Committee in March 2008. Then, in September of 2012, he was unanimously elected as President of the World Lottery Association (WLA). Jean-Luc’s great wealth of experience in the realm of lotteries and his dynamic vision of the key issues at stake on the international stage, particularly in the arena of sports betting, persuaded the assembled members to appoint him to the WLA’s highest office for a term of two years. Jean-Luc is a member of the executive committee of the Euro Millions multi-jurisdictions game, was a member of the executive committee of the European Lotteries Association from 2009 to 2012(www.european-lotteries.org), head of the sport committee, and member of the executive committee of the World Lottery Association since 2008 (www.world-lotteries.org). The WLA is a member-based organization advancing the interests of 146 state-authorized lotteries and 57 lottery suppliers internationally. Services provided to the WLA membership include certification in the areas of responsible gaming and information security, educational services in the form of seminars and conferences, and the collection of lottery relevant data. The WLA promotes the highest standards of social responsibility and seeks to improve public understanding of the beneficial role that state lotteries play in society. Jean-Luc is committed to preserving the tremendous value that government-lotteries everywhere provide to society. In an era when private companies active on the Internet, often operating illegally, are challenging the operating business model of State lotteries worldwide, the community of lotteries needs an active and informed voice in this global debate over regulation of the industry. Jean-Luc’s mission to forge a professional network at the very highest level and engage in the all-important debate on fundamental issue regulation will serve the membership of the WLA well. This cooperation is likely to prove particularly fruitful as it will allow the integration of an international perspective and global regulatory best practices into the current drafting of the new law. The future of lotteries is so dependent upon the support of political stakeholders. The leadership of our industry associations is vital to the efforts to communicate the role that government lotteries perform for the benefit of society. To that end, Jean-Luc Moner-Banet has been active in advocating for prudent regulatory frameworks, and the means to enforce those regulations, on both the national stage in Switzerland and also the world stage as president of the WLA. |