PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR
Melco Resorts and Entertainment
PRESIDENT AND MANAGING DIRECTOR
Melco International
DIRECTOR
Studio City International Holdings
POWER SCORE: 933
POSITION LAST YEAR: 28
CLAIMS TO FAME
- Key adviser to Melco Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho
- Former investment banker who joined Melco in 2016
FOR A COMPANY that has shown little tolerance in the past for anyone deemed to be underperforming, Melco Resorts and its charismatic Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho must believe Evan Winkler is doing something right.
Having joined the company in 2016 from global investment bank Moelis & Company, Winkler was appointed Melco’s President in September 2019 as part of an executive overhaul and charged with overseeing the daily operations of the company’s properties, including Macau, Manila and the Mediterranean.
That hasn’t been an easy task for the 45-year-old given the challenges presented by COVID-19, which have turned the company’s focus more towards shoring up liquidity than counting their cash. There was also the not so small setback of seeing their Yokohama IR dreams quashed when the Japanese city withdrew from the development race in September of this year.
In the meantime, Melco is still working on two non-gaming resorts in Japan, while 2022 will see the launch of City of Dreams Mediterranean – Europe’s first true integrated resort – in Cyprus and ongoing development of Studio City Phase 2 in Macau.
Winkler’s personal experience includes almost 20 years in finance at Wall Street investment banks, participating in projects that familiarized him with Melco and vice versa. He worked on mergers and acquisitions at UBS, then joined Moelis & Company, founded in 2007 to specialize in M&A – a skill he put to good use when Melco briefly acquired a stake in Australia’s Crown Resorts in early 2019.
For the full list of 2021 Asian Gaming Power 50 winners, click here.
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