As President and Chief Executive Officer of Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: CZR), Wally Barr leads one of the world’s leading gaming companies.
A gaming veteran with extensive experience in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, Barr previously served as the company’s chief operating officer. In that role, Barr was directly responsible for the daily operation casino resorts spanning four continents and comprising 29,000 hotel rooms and two million square feet of casino space.
Barr began his gaming career as a casino auditor in Las Vegas, working out of the Los Angeles office of accounting firm Arthur Andersen & Company. In that role, he was responsible for auditing many of the casinos that later joined the Caesars Entertainment family, including the Flamingo and the International (now the Las Vegas Hilton). Later, Barr went to work in the finance department of the former MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, which became Bally’s Las Vegas. He also held an executive post with the then newly opened Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe.
With the passage of casino gaming legislation in New Jersey, Barr moved to Caesars Atlantic City in January 1979, initially as casino controller, and subsequently as casino administrator. Two years later, he joined Bally's Park Place as corporate controller and treasurer and was subsequently promoted to senior vice president.
When Bally’s was acquired by Hilton Hotels Corporation, Barr became executive vice president of Hilton Gaming Corporation. When Park Place Entertainment Corporation was spun off from Hilton on December 31, 1998, Barr was named executive vice president for the eastern, southern and international regions. In January 2001, he was promoted to the post of co-chief operating officer for the company. He became Park Place's sole chief operating officer in July 2001 and was named president and chief executive officer on November 19, 2002. The company formally changed its name to Caesars Entertainment, Inc. on January 6, 2004.
Barr was recognized along with the company as the 2003 “Employer of the Year” by the Nevada State AFL-CIO, which cited his pivotal role in successfully concluding a multi-year contract with the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas.
Barr was named 1999 Businessman of the Year by The Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce and 1995 Atlantic City Executive of the Year by the Casino Journal magazine. From November 1996 to January 2001, he served as Chairman and President of the Casino Association of New Jersey.
Barr serves on the boards of numerous organizations including the American Gaming Association and the Nevada Resort Association. Active in charitable, civic and community initiatives, he is a member of the board of directors for The Cancer Institute of New Jersey. He was Founding President of the Jacobs Family Terrace nonprofit corporation – Atlantic City's first casino-sponsored 72-unit home ownership housing development. Barr also is a member of the Executive Advisory Council of Rutgers University, Camden School of Business and a member of the College of Business Advisory Council, California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, California.
For more than 15 years, Barr he has been a major fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City and has taken a personal interest in the development of its new $3 million facility.
Barr earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration at California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo in 1968. He and his wife Roberta live in Las Vegas.
MARCH 2004
