Star Sydney CEO Scott Wharton announces resignation

The Star Sydney has announced the resignation of its CEO, Scott Wharton from the position. Wharton, who joined Star Sydney July 2022, will drop the reins of the casino fully by April 28 and move to employee management services corporation Smartgroup in July as its CEO and managing director.

Wharton joined Star Sydney as CEO eight months ago while the company was in the thick of regulatory issues. His appointment was to oversee the casino’s return to suitability following the company being declared unsuitable to hold a casino license in New South Wales and Queensland.

During his time, outgoing CEO Scott Wharton worked on building a standard corporate culture and remediating governance issues identified by regulators.

All of his work was done during trying times for Star Sydney, which reported a $1 billion loss for the first half of the financial year. It attributed the loss to regulatory sanctions and adjustments stemming from its gross malfeasance.

As it stands, with Wharton leaving, Star Entertainment Group will have to restructure its executive to fill the vacant position.

“I want to thank Scott for his valuable contribution, particularly in respect of our remediation actions,” said Star Entertainment Group CEO Robbie Cooke.

“We are committed to winning back trust and confidence from the community and the work Scott has led since his appointment last July has laid incredibly important foundations.”

In a statement, Scott Wharton noted that while he enjoyed his time at Star Sydney, he was looking forward to joing Smartgroup to “build on its success”.

“It has been hugely rewarding to contribute alongside so many committed, hard-working leaders and team members,” he said.

Meanwhile, Star Sydney does not yet know where it stands with the newly elected Labor government in terms of tax rate increases. Former premier Dominic Perrottet promised to increase its rate which will amount to a loss of $1.6 billion to the casino. However, Premier Chris Minns is yet to comment if the tax rate will stay or not.

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