{"id":777002382,"date":"2023-02-14T14:39:39","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T17:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777002382"},"modified":"2026-04-23T00:40:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:40:50","slug":"the-star-appoints-scott-saunders-as-chief-risk-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-star-appoints-scott-saunders-as-chief-risk-officer","title":{"rendered":"The Star appoints Scott Saunders as chief risk officer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Saunders has previously served in various positions at Westpac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- The Star Entertainment Group<\/strong> has announced through a company filing that it has appointed Scott Saunders as chief risk officer. The appointment remains subject to regulatory approval, but Saunders has already started in the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group CEO and managing director Robbie Cooke<\/strong> said Saunders will \u201cplay an integral role in returning The Star to suitability and earning back the trusts and confidence of our regulators and other stakeholders\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saunders previously served as general manager, financial crime and chief compliance officer at the Australian banking group Westpac. Prior to that, he worked in compliance at the Macquarie Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Star<\/a> has forecast underlying EBITDA <\/strong>of AU$195m (US$134.83m) to AU$205m (US$141.74m) for the first fiscal half of 2023. The company said Star Sydney saw a decline in domestic revenue of 13.5 per cent compared to pre-Covid-19 levels, taking total company revenue down 1 per cent when compared to 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the casino operator, the trading performance of The Star Sydney has been negatively affected by stricter operating restrictions since mid-September as a result of the Adam Bell SC\u2019s inquiry<\/a> and changes to the NSW Casino Control Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Star is facing several lawsuits<\/a> over alleged misrepresentations concerning its anti-money laundering compliance measures. Last week, the law firm Phi Finney McDonald<\/strong> filed a securities class action lawsuit against it in the Supreme Court of Victoria. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saunders has previously served in various positions at Westpac.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":29796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Star Entertainment Group has appointed Scott Saunders as its new Chief Risk Officer, a move subject to regulatory approval, aimed at restoring the company's suitability and stakeholder trust. This appointment comes amidst ongoing regulatory scrutiny, operational restrictions impacting revenue, and a securities class action lawsuit concerning alleged AML compliance misrepresentations. The company has also provided an underlying EBITDA forecast for the first fiscal half of 2023.","focusai_entities":"The Star Entertainment Group, Scott Saunders, Robbie Cooke, Westpac, Macquarie Group, Adam Bell SC, Phi Finney McDonald","focusai_location":"Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Victoria","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.98), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.95), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"AML Framework Enhancements?","query":"Given Scott Saunders' extensive background in financial crime and compliance, what specific enhancements to The Star's Anti-Money Laundering (AML) framework are anticipated, and what is the projected timeline for their full implementation and regulatory validation?"},{"label":"EBITDA Forecast Impact?","query":"How will the ongoing stricter operating restrictions, the Adam Bell SC inquiry's recommendations, and the recently filed securities class action lawsuit impact The Star's ability to achieve its forecasted H1 2023 underlying EBITDA, particularly considering the domestic revenue decline at Star Sydney?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[24103],"class_list":["post-777002382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","tag-star-entertainment-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777002382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777002382"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777002382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777002415,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777002382\/revisions\/777002415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777002382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777002382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777002382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}