Inside Asian Gaming

September 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 23 Asian Gaming 50 – 2009 24 (28) Justin Leong Ming Loong Head of Strategic Investments and Corporate Affairs, Genting Group Many large publicly traded companies in Asia are still family-run, and Genting Group is no exception. Justin Leong is a grandson of the group’s founder Lim Goh Tong. His boss is his uncle Lim Kok Thay, the brother of Mr Leong’s mother Siew Lian. It would be misleading, however, to assume nepotism is the guiding principle within Genting. No major company could survive in a competitive industry such as gaming and during the current challenging trading conditions without having talent at the top. Oxford University-educated Mr Leong plays a key role as a ‘big picture’ man, looking out for new investment opportunities and also talking to existing investors and to the media. Genting has probably been the most proactive of all the major Asian gaming companies in understanding the value of good public relations in an age of globalised language and on their own terms, having started his career at Goldman Sachs in London where he was an analyst in the M&A division and an associate in global technology equity sales. business and 24-hour news. Even those companies with a good in-house PR department tend to appoint outsiders to this role. The fact that Mr Leong is one of the family and has direct access to the top man in the organisation indicates the business value that Genting attaches to positive publicity and a good corporate image. Genting’s core markets for its gaming operations are Malaysia and soon Singapore, two jurisdictions where support for its gaming business cannot be taken for granted because of domestic political considerations. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the company places great store in protecting its image and its reputation as a company of probity. On the strategic front, Mr Leong reportedly played a key role in the Group’s decision to take a stake in the cash- pressured MGM MIRAGE recently, as well as the decision to make the group in effect the United Kingdom’s biggest casino operator by purchasing a controlling stake in Stanley Leisure in 2006. Mr Leong is also in a position to speak to the banking community in their own 25 (11) Efraim Genuino Chairman and CEO, PAGCOR Dr Genuino’s influence on Philippines gaming and on the wider political and social scene has been significant. He slips into the second half of the Asian Gaming 50 – 2009 list this year only because his term of office is due to expire soon to coincide with presidential elections scheduled for 2010. It was Dr Genuino who led the planning of the ambitious Manila Bay project for the creation of one of Asia’s biggest leisure zones featuring gaming, entertainment, shopping and residential developments. He has also presided over the expansion of PAGCOR’s online gaming licensing regime domiciled in the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), as well as the licensing of a number of other gaming projects around this nation of islands. PAGCOR reported total revenues of P14.6 billion (US$302 million) for the first half of 2009. As the leader of PAGCOR, Dr Genuino has been lobbyist for the Philippines gaming industry, gatekeeper of its standards and diplomatic link between investors in the sector and sometimes hostile politicians and churchmen. As the head man at PAGCOR, Dr Genuino is responsible for disbursing large amounts of tax money both as remittances to the central government and as grants for support of sports and social programmes. By the conventions of the Philippines political system, Dr Genuino and his senior management team at PAGCOR will be expected to step down at or before the next Presidential elections in 2010. The reason is that the presidential incumbent, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, will not be seeking re- election, and the incoming president has the prerogative to appoint his or her own senior executive team at PAGCOR. Dr Genuino has been tipped as a possible future presidential hopeful in his own right, although some commentators think that honour is more likely to fall to his son.