Vol. 4 No. 12, December 2007
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A Family Affair
Former Trop exec brings her style of management to Indiana
Maureen Keenan exudes calm, decorum, soft-spoken humor and a knack for nurturing.
“People respond better when they are spoken to rather than being reamed out,” says the former Tropicana controller, now an accomplished, versatile and well-traveled gaming executive. “Treating people with dignity and respect really does work. That’s an important quality to have in place.”
What better personality to contrast the high-energy gaming world? Keenan, who climbed six ladder rungs at the Trop, launches another adventure. After thriving as the vice president and casino general manager of Casino Aztar in Evansville, Ind., Keenan was named vice president of finance at the Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa, Fla., effective December 1. This will be her first foray outside the Aztar family.
Keenan and Aztar would have marked their 25th “anniversary” next month. She served the first part of the tenure, from 1983 to 1995, in Atlantic City.
Now, Keenan practically returns. Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Fla. has become a Southern version of Atlantic City, with its bevy of former Boardwalk executives. Keenan may help begin an extension of that trend in central Florida.
For Keenan, executive status emerged gradually. Multi-faceted tenacity paved part of the journey. The Toms River native gained a marketing degree from the University of Charleston (West Virginia), moved to Texas, and finally reached Atlantic City as an accounts payable clerk. Keenan left here as a controller.
Stints at Atlantic Cape Community College and Stockton provided the financial insight to augment her marketing skills. Keenan juggled the difficult world of professional and theoretical activities while raising a family.
Mentors like Paul Rubelli and Jim Perry also enabled Keenan’s rise. They formulated a family environment that still left room for individual advancement. Keenan took advantage, juggled her priorities and enjoyed an enviable era in Atlantic City.
Professional success demanded the embrace of change, especially at the Tropicana.
“A lot of the excitement at that time came from the fact I was constantly getting new positions,” Keenan says. “It was accounts payable, and the hotel and casino side. The Atlantic City market was still growing. We had some banner years between 1983 and 1995. The Trop itself was growing. We had a 500-room hotel, then the South Tower, then the TropWorld thing, and when that went away it was back to the regular casino entertainment-type environment. It was constantly evolving.”
Keenan had numerous duties here. Some involved collections from delinquent players. Keenan contacted the customers, most of whom had forgotten what they owed. She nudged, nicely, and they paid.
Other responsibilities involved dealing with the cage and monitoring the nightly count. Keenan learned the common sense that accompanies the world of dollars.
“I must have counted a billion dollars on paper, but never received any of it,” she says, laughing. “The hard part about accounting is that you only get blamed, you don’t achieve anything. When you make a lot of money, marketing did a great job. When you don’t make a lot of money, the accountants must have done something wrong.”
Keenan made a significant crossover to obtain GM wings. She mastered the conflicting worlds of bean counters and bean spenders.
“Finance gets you involved in the marketing side, the table side and the analysis of your revenue,” Keenan says. “One important thing you learn in finance is that there is no black and white. Everything is grey. You can’t do things just because the budget says so. Even though I’m a finance person, it’s obvious there are times when you have to spend money to make money. On the flip side, sometimes it’s foolish to chase revenue. You don’t want direct-mail wars. You don’t want to promote yourself out of the business. A lot of it is gut feeling. You need a good idea of what the customer is worth and what you are willing to reinvest.”
Financial acumen was critical in the punitive Midwest regulatory environment. Gaming establishments are taxed at between 15 percent and 35 percent, substantially more than in Atlantic City. Although Casino Aztar faced far less competition than properties here, the tax scenario destroyed any margin for error.
Keenan nonetheless presided over the company’s invigorating new wrinkle, a redesigned casino floor. It became the final crowning jewel of her Midwest foray and centered around slots. Keenan directed the work of more than 1,000 employees, leading Casino Aztar into a new age.
A similar story should emerge in Florida. The Hard Rock has strong financial backing and is a pillar of the area economy. Taxes, in the Indian gaming world, are not problematic.
Keenan’s gaming savvy and financial expertise have again merged. It’s a new journey, by familiar means.
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