Glazer will replace Carol Anderson as CFO of Mohegan. The group announced Anderson would be stepping down from the role in October last year. Anderson will exit on 31 March, with president and CEO Ray Pineault to oversee finance functions until Glazer joins in May.
As CFO, Glazer will assume responsibility for all finance activities at Mohegan. These include financial planning and analysis, capital markets, accounting, tax, treasury, procurement and cash management. He will report to Pineault.
Glazer joins Mohegan after more than 20 years with investment bank Citigroup. Here, he most recently served as managing director and global head of gaming and hospitality client coverage. While working with Citigroup, Glazer advised leading companies in the gambling industry on strategic and capital markets transactions.
Prior to his time with Citigroup, Glazer worked for another investment bank in Bear Stearns & Company. In addition, he had a spell at Nextel Communications.
“I am honoured to join Mohegan and to contribute to the company’s dynamic and innovative trajectory,” Glazer said. “I look forward to leveraging my experience to enhance our financial performance, optimise our capital structure and support Mohegan’s ambitious vision as its new CFO.”
Pineault added: “Ari embodies the visionary leadership and deep financial insight that Mohegan is looking for at this stage of our growth. His skills will be key to our strategy of diversifying Mohegan’s portfolio and strengthening our fiscal foundation.”
Record revenue for Mohegan in 2023
The appointment comes on the back of a record 2023 for Mohegan, during which revenue hit an all-time high of $1.67bn ($1.30m/€1.53m).
Mohegan also generated adjusted EBITDA of $399.9m, the second highest in its history. This was just below the $403.9m record set in full-year 2022. This was despite a $4.7m interest impact from Mohegan’s Niagara debenture conversion and related transactions.
A busy Q4 helped push Mohegan to record revenue in 2023. Net revenue for the final three months of the year amounted to $444.3m.
Gaming made up most revenue for Q4 at $297.8m. The remaining net revenue was made up of food and beverage, hotel, retail and entertainment and other.
However, it was not all good news in Q4. Total operating costs and expenses for the quarter increased by 13.3% to $396.2m, Other expenses hit $60.6m, leaving a pre-tax loss of $12.5m.
Income tax provision of $6.3m brought total net loss to $18.8m. This was in stark contrast to net income of $29.6m in the previous year.