As two former members resigned their seats on the Board of Directors, Amaya Gaming announced earlier this week two new directors to take their seats. Venture capitalist Peter Murphy and retired executive Mary Turner will take over the seats of the departing Dr. Aubrey Zidenberg and Army General Wesley Clark, effective immediately.
The chairman of the board, Divyesh ‘Dave’ Gadhia, was excited to announce the new arrivals to the Board. “As part of our continued corporate evolution, we are excited to nominate Peter and Mary as directors,” Gadhia said in commenting on the changes. “Peter and Mary have impressive track records and a combined 50 plus years of relevant experience. We expect them to immediately contribute to the success of our company.”
The departure of Clark and Zidenberg also gave Gadhia a moment of pause to lament their departure from the Amaya Board of Directors. “On behalf of the company and the Board, I’d like to thank General Clark and Aubrey (Zidenberg) for their service, dedication and contributions to the Board and company over the years,” Gadhia commented. “We are very grateful for their leadership and wish them the best.” While Clark will end his association with Amaya, Zidenberg will stay with the company as a member of its Compliance Committee.
Murphy is the founder and chairman of Wentworth Capital Management, a venture capital firm, but his background in entertainment and gaming are what make him particularly attractive for the Amaya board. Murphy worked his way up the ladder at The Walt Disney Company over an 18-year span, at one point being named by the Hollywood Reporter one of the top 35 executives under 35 years old. Murphy also worked with Apollo Global Management, focusing on media and entertainment investing, and spent time as the president of Strategy and Development with Caesars Entertainment. His work with the Amaya Board of Directors isn’t Murphy’s first work in this area as he currently sits on the Board of the Tribune Company and Malibu Boats.
Turner retired from her position as President and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Tire Bank in 2016, spending over 25 years with the company in a variety of departments. Before working at Canadian Tire Bank, Turner worked with Deloitte & Touche in Toronto. Turner also has a wealth of experience in service to businesses, working on the Board of Directors for such companies as Mackenzie Financial Corporation, the YMCA Canada, and Niagara College.
The changes to the Board of Directors comes at a time when Amaya is looking to maximize its value. The company’s online casino gaming outlets are driving Amaya’s bottom line, while its online poker product – including the #1 online poker site in the industry, PokerStars – and the live action PokerStars Championships and PokerStars Festivals, have come under fire from the online poker community. In the eyes of the online poker world, Amaya has significantly cut many aspects of PokerStars, ruining what was once viewed as the pinnacle of online poker excellence. The poker world also hasn’t exactly warmed up (yet) to the PokerStars Championships, the replacement of the highly popular European Poker Tour and the various regional tours that were a part of the PokerStars brand prior to 2017.
May has been a difficult month to judge the performance of Amaya Gaming stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange. At the beginning of the month, Amaya was trading at $24.55 per share and worked its way up to $26.51 by the middle of the month. Since then, however, a steady decline has settled in. That decline still has Amaya over its start-of-the-month numbers, though, as Amaya finished the day on Thursday trading at $25 per share.
