McCann,who previously led property giant LendLease,was appointed Crown’s CEO last year in the wake of a damning NSW inquiry which found it was unfit to hold a casino license. Since then,Crown has managed to hang on to its casino licences in three states,and secure an $8.9 billion sale to US private equity giant Blackstone.
McCann said it would be hard to identify a company that has gone through what Crown has in recent times.
“To deal with all of that at the same time as a change of control,with the negotiation of a takeover,and trying to recover from the impact of COVID in an industry which is probably one of the hardest-hit industries. That’s a significant combination of events all at once,” he said.
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McCann was almost reduced to tears just five weeks into the job last year when he was brutally interrogated about Crown’s failings at one of three public inquiries.
Blackstone is installing its own executivesfollowing the completion of the takeover last month, along with casino veteran Ciarán Carruthers who will take over as CEO. Carruthers,who already has Australian permanent residency,is currently overseeing US casino company Wynn’s operations in Macau.
Blackstone flagged more executive appointments to head each of its casinos in Australia. “Further senior appointments including the CEO of Crown Melbourne and CEO of Crown Perth will be announced in due course,” Blackstone said in a statement announcing the transition from McCann’s role to Carruthers beginning in September and subject to probity approval.