Five MGM executives promoted, four at Las Vegas properties

MGM Resorts International has promoted five executives to president and chief operating officer at their respective resorts, including four in MGM’s Las Vegas portfolio.

Two are UNLV graduates, two went through the company’s management associate program and two are women.

The promoted executives are:

— Ann Hoff, at Excalibur

Hoff is a UNLV grad and a 27-year MGM employee. Hoff was hired into the management program in 1990 with experience at The Mirage, New York-New York, Treasure Island and the company’s Beau Rivage property in Biloxi, Mississippi.

— Nik Rytterstrom, at Luxor

Rytterstrom came to the United States as an exchange student, attended UNLV and joined the company as the assistant hotel manager at Bellagio in 1999. He’s had leadership positions at The Mirage, Gold Strike in Tunica, Mississippi, and Beau Rivage before taking a general manager position at Luxor in 2015.

— Patrick Miller, at Monte Carlo

Miller is a Notre Dame graduate who went through the management program after joining the company as a pit clerk at The Mirage. He also held a position at Mandalay Bay before moving to Monte Carlo in 2012.

— Eric Fitzgerald, at Circus Circus

Fitzgerald joined the company in 2005 as vice president of hotel operations at Excalibur. The Arizona State University graduate has been general manager of Circus Circus since 2014.

— Melonie Johnson, at Gold Strike in Tunica

The University of New Orleans graduate had leadership positions at the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in West Virginia, Penn National Gaming and Caesars Entertainment before joining MGM as general manager of Gold Strike in 2015.

South Strip

Hoff and Rytterstrom are anxious to position their respective properties for what’s ahead at the south end of the Strip, where a 65,000-seat domed football stadium is to be built just southwest of them at Interstate 15 and Russell Road.

“It’s a wonderful location, and the neighborhood keeps getting better,” said Hoff, 50, who said she’s always felt Excalibur was ideally positioned on the Strip.

“Once we added T-Mobile Arena and the Park, we added a parking facility in the back to be better positioned to accommodate what’s happening in the neighborhood,” she said in a telephone interview. “Ultimately, Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur are certainly developing plans for the future state of additional development, particularly with the stadium. What an exciting time to be in hospitality and entertainment.”

Swedish student

Rytterstrom, 44, who grew up in Sweden and moved to the United States as a high school exchange student, will get to oversee a major room remodeling for Luxor that begins in October as well as the company’s new esports arena that is expected to open in the first quarter of 2018.

“The idea of having this tangible date in the future in the fall of 2020 when the Raiders will play here, there’s a lot of excitement around it and, to a large extent, it’s really going to change the neighborhood,” he said.

When he first saw Luxor, it was love at first sight for Rytterstrom.

“Even to this date, it’s one of the most iconic buildings on the Las Vegas Strip,” he said of the 4,400-room property that opened in October 1993.

Miller, 45, will be in the center of one of the company’s biggest transitions, repositioning Monte Carlo into the Park MGM.

“Our transformation of the Monte Carlo to Park MGM is fantastic,” Miller said. “It’s the crowning piece of the remaining part of the neighborhood. When you look at what we’ve done at T-Mobile and the park itself and the Park Theater and really, you could go back to Aria and everything we’ve done with CityCenter, this really becomes an epicenter.”

Bishop Gorman grad

A Bishop Gorman High School graduate, Miller is overseeing a major room renovation project, a makeover of the hotel lobby that concludes next week, several new restaurant redesigns and the placement of the NoMad resort on the top four floors of the building. The Park MGM name change is expected to occur next year.

Fitzgerald, 51, who got his first taste of the hospitality industry as a lifeguard at age 14 at the former Las Vegas Hilton, now the Westgate, said he’s excited to boost Circus Circus’ role as an established player on the rapidly changing north Strip.

“We’re excited about the location where we’re at,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve got the (Las Vegas) Convention Center (expansion) opening up in 2020, which not only will help Circus Circus, but all of Las Vegas.”

Fitzgerald said he first walked into Circus Circus, one of the city’s first themed family attractions, in 1974 when he was a fourth-grader.

“It was an exciting, fun environment,” he said of that visit. “It’s fun at any age, but when you’re in fourth grade and you’re going to the midway, it’s exciting to see all those games.”

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.