SkyCity Entertainment names three new directors

Silvana Schenone. Picture / Supplied

SkyCity Entertainment said it will appoint three new independent directors, including corporate lawyer Silvana Schenone, outgoing Summerset chief executive Julian Cook and former Star Entertainment CFO Chad Barton.

The appointments follow the sudden retirement of Adelaide-based deputy chair Bruce Carter last week and several key personnel last year.

Last November former CEO Graham Stephens, former chief financial officer Rob Hamilton and former chief marketing officer Liza McNally all announced resignations on the same day.

Today's three appointments are subject to approval by regulatory authorities in each of the gaming jurisdictions in which SkyCity operates, a process which normally takes some months to conclude, the company said in a statement.

But in the meantime, they will each be available to assist the SkyCity Board in an advisory capacity.

Chairman Rob Campbell said the three will bring considerable expertise and diversity, both individually and collectively, to the board "in terms of their backgrounds and thinking".

Schenone is a corporate partner at MinterEllisonRuddWatts in Auckland where she leads the firm's Corporate division. She has extensive expertise in mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, takeovers, scheme of arrangements, capital raisings and corporate governance matters. Prior to joining MinterEllisonRuddWatts in 2007, Schenone was a corporate lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York and prior to that at Cariola Diez Pérez-Cotapos in Chile.

Julian Cook. Photo / Chris Steel

Cook became CEO of Summerset in 2014 after overseeing the company's sharemarket listing as CFO. Prior to that he was an associate director at Macquarie Group where he was involved in the energy, industrial services, tourism and aged care sectors over a 12-year career.

Chad Barton. Photo / Linkedin

Barton has been CEO of ASX-listed companies The Star Entertainment Group Limited from 2014 to 2019 and Salmat Limited from 2009 to 2014. Before those roles he was CFO of the Australia and New Zealand business of Electronic Data Systems from 2006 to 2009.