Management Team

Hector Fernandez joined IGT as CEO in December 2025 and leads the Gaming, Digital and FinTech businesses for the combined IGT and Everi enterprise.

Prior to joining IGT, Hector served as CEO of Aristocrat Gaming, overseeing the end-to-end delivery of its global land-based business in over 300 gaming jurisdictions. He previously served as Aristocrat’s President of the Americas and EMEA as well as the Chief Financial Officer of the Americas. Earlier in his career, Hector held various senior level positions at Deloitte, Procter & Gamble, Amgen and Western Digital.

Hector is a Guatemalan immigrant to the United States, offering dual fluency in English and Spanish. He is also a certified public accountant and holds an MBA with a concentration in Finance and Marketing from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and a BA in Economics with a minor in Accounting and Government from Claremont McKenna College. Hector was recently elected to the National Board of Directors of The Alzheimer’s Association and is a Board Member of the American Gaming Association and the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College.

Darren Simmons has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of FinTech for the newly combined enterprise, bringing over 25 years of leadership experience across financial services, gaming, business development, and professional sports. He joins the executive team with a strong track record of driving growth, operational excellence, and innovation in regulated industries.

Most recently, Darren served as Executive Vice President and FinTech Business Leader at Everi, where he oversaw all aspects of the FinTech division’s profitability and performance. His responsibilities included leading product management, innovation, operations, and sales enablement across a diverse portfolio of offerings. Under his leadership, the business expanded its market presence and launched several best-in-class solutions spanning payments, anti-money laundering (AML) and RegTech compliance, loyalty programs, and mobile platforms.

Darren played a central role in defining and executing Everi’s FinTech M&A strategy, successfully integrating multiple acquisitions that enhanced product capabilities and contributed to sustained revenue growth. Earlier in his tenure at Everi, he held several senior management roles that contributed to the rapid scaling of the FinTech business, international expansion, and growth of the product portfolio.

Prior to joining Everi, Darren held leadership roles in corporate development and sponsorships, including serving as Director of Corporate Sales at First Data Corporation (now Fiserv), a global leader in financial technology, and Manager of Corporate Sponsorships for the Edmonton Oilers professional ice hockey team.

Darren holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Alberta and is recognized for his strategic mindset, operational discipline, and ability to lead high-performing teams through transformation and growth.

Tara Bustamante joins the newly combined enterprise as Chief Transformation Officer, bringing her extensive experience in driving strategic change and creating value to the broader management and leadership team. Tara is responsible for spearheading organizational change initiatives, aligning strategies with business goals, and fostering innovation across divisions. Her leadership will play a pivotal role in achieving value creation, enhanced efficiencies, and long-term growth for the organization.

Prior to this role, Tara served as Group SVP for Global Business Transformation and Integration at Warner Bros. Discovery, where she successfully built and led high-impact transformation teams that delivered measurable business value through operational excellence, data-driven decision-making, and sustainable innovation. She has played a pivotal role in some of the media industry’s largest and most complex integrations, including transformation leadership for the $43 billion Discovery-Warner Media merger.

Tara’s career is marked by a consistent track record of building trusted advisory relationships across the C-suite, spearheading global reorganizations, and aligning enterprise programs with top-level strategic priorities. She has successfully led initiatives across diverse functions—including finance, HR, technology, and ad sales—and across every phase of the M&A lifecycle, including day-one readiness and post-merger integration.

Before joining Warner Bros. Discovery, Tara held senior roles at Marriott International, American Red Cross, and MCI/WorldCom, where she led initiatives in ecommerce, digital asset management, and supply chain logistics.

She holds an MS from Johns Hopkins University and a BA from Syracuse University.

Fabio Celadon joins the new combined enterprise as Chief Financial Officer, bringing decades of experience to the broader management and leadership team. In his role, Fabio is responsible for developing and executing the combined entity’s financial strategy and for overseeing all financial operations, including budgeting and long-term planning, financial reporting, capital structure management and treasury operations. He is also responsible for identifying and mitigating financial risks end ensuring internal controls and regulatory compliance. Fabio will also evaluate and manage investment opportunities and drive profit improvement. He will communicate financial performance to internal and external stakeholders, building strong relationships with investors, auditors and financial institutions.

Fabio most recently served as Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development at IGT. Under his direction, his team monitored industry and competitive trends, developed IGT’s portfolio strategy and executed numerous M&A transactions, managing deal evaluation, structuring and negotiations, while coordinating internal cross-functional teams and external advisors. In his role, Fabio also spearheaded IGT’s corporate innovation program.

Previously, Fabio served as Senior Vice President, Gaming Portfolio, leading a team focused on monitoring industry technology and competitive trends, consolidating the company’s R&D plans, evolving IGT’s hardware and content portfolios, and measuring product performance.

Prior to that, Fabio served as Managing Director, IGT Greater China and Senior Vice President, IGT International. In this role, he was responsible for IGT’s operations in Greater China and for business development initiatives in the region.

Fabio also held strategic planning and corporate development roles at GTECH S.p.A. (IGT’s predecessor and formerly known as Lottomatica S.p.A.). He joined Lottomatica in 2002 and held several finance, treasury and corporate development positions, including CFO from 2002 to 2004.

Fabio Celadon holds a Law Degree from LUISS Guido Carli University and an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York.

Gil Rotem joins the new combined enterprise as Chief Executive Officer, PlayDigital, bringing decades of experience to the broader management and leadership team. Prior to his current role, he served as the President of iGaming for IGT PlayDigital. Since joining the Company in 2021, Gil has helped PlayDigital take a leading position in the global iGaming market and grow the Company’s games portfolio and engagement tools offering. He boasts more than two decades of experience in the iGaming sector.

Prior to joining IGT, Gil worked as an independent consultant for an online sports betting company where he led the development and delivery of dozens of exclusive casino titles built to suit the organization’s proprietary games and jackpot platform. Before that, he spent nearly 15 years at bet365, a UK-based gambling company. There, he was Group Director for Gaming Strategy, served on the company’s Board of Directors and was responsible for strategic planning and operations, as well as the delivery of product optimization improvements.

Gil also completed a five-year tenure with iGaming company 888 in a director-level role, where he applied his technical background to streamline operations, increase business production and enhance promotional programs across iGaming and sports betting.

Dan Ciccarelli serves as Chief Information Officer at IGT, where he shapes the global technology vision for a multi-billion dollar leader in gaming, digital, and fintech. He oversees an end-to-end technology organization of more than 1,000 professionals and manages platforms that power operations in over 20 countries, supporting thousands of casino, digital, and financial endpoints worldwide.

Widely recognized as a transformational technology leader, Dan excels at executing large-scale integration and modernization initiatives. He is spearheading the unification of IGT and Everi, consolidating hundreds of applications and platforms to deliver major cost synergies, boost operational efficiency, and accelerate innovation. Dan’s efforts are advancing the convergence of gaming and fintech by enabling cashless gaming, digital wallets, real-time payments, and AI-driven player engagement.

Previously, Dan was Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Everi, where he directed technology strategy for an $800M+ enterprise supporting over 600 casino clients across North America. He modernized core platforms through cloud and API-first transformation, implemented real-time fraud detection spanning millions of transactions, and played a pivotal role in preparing Everi for its successful merger with IGT.

Dan also spent over two decades at Wells Fargo, holding senior leadership roles in payments technology. He led transformative initiatives and managed platforms operating at multi-billion dollar daily volumes, driving advancements in scalability, resiliency, and operational performance.

Dan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Global Logistics Management and a Master’s degree in Information Management from Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business.

J.D. joins the combined entity as Chief People & Culture Officer. He brings extensive experience to the role and is responsible for managing IGT’s global People & Culture team, which hires, develops, engages, rewards and retains the great talent across all IGT's businesses and locations.

Prior to joining IGT, J.D. held several leadership roles at Activision Blizzard, including Chief People Officer of Blizzard Entertainment, Senior Vice President of Corporate Human Resources, and Vice President of Global Talent. At Flex, J.D. was Vice President of Human Resources and, before that, Senior Director of Corporate Strategy. He was also a consultant at Bain & Company and Booz & Company (now PwC Strategy&).

J.D. holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and an MBA in Marketing from Northwestern University.

Nick Khin leads the new combined enterprise as Interim IGT Chief Executive Officer, as well as Chief Executive Officer, Gaming, and brings decades of experience to the broader management and leadership team. In his previous role as President, Global Gaming, he was responsible for managing all aspects of IGT’s global land-based gaming business, including studios, technology, sales, games and hardware, manufacturing and services, and systems. Nick previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Gaming in which he was responsible for IGT’s land-based portfolio of products in addition to leading the Americas Sales and Business Development organization. He joined IGT in July 2013 and led IGT’s Corporate Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions function and played a key role in the 2015 merger between GTECH and IGT.

Prior to joining IGT, Nick held various executive roles at Aristocrat Leisure Limited including President and CEO of Aristocrat’s American business in which he was responsible for all of Aristocrat’s North and South American operations, Aristocrat’s largest revenue and profit generating unit. Prior to this, he had overall responsibility for Aristocrat’s European, Middle East and African unit and was based in London.

Nick has also served on the board of directors for Interblock (Elektroncek B.V), Ace Interactive (Sweden) and the American Gaming Association (2008-2012).

Before entering the gaming industry, Nick held senior financial roles at AT&T and later NCR Corporation in both Europe and the U.S. He graduated with honors from the University of Auckland with a Master’s degree in Commerce and is a fellow member of the Australian Institute of Public Accountants.

An industry veteran with over two decades’ experience on both the Operator and Supplier sides of the business, Mark Dunn joins the combined entity as its Chief Legal Officer, with enterprise-wide remit over all areas of the company’s legal and compliance functions.

Mark came to IGT following more than 5 years as the General Counsel of Baha Mar, a large-scale casino resort in The Bahamas. Prior to Baha Mar, Mark served as global General Counsel for Aristocrat Leisure Limited.

He began his career in the gaming industry with Harrah’s Entertainment in 2002, ultimately becoming Vice President of Legal Affairs for Caesars Entertainment, following its acquisition by Harrah’s. Mark also recently served as Chairman of the Compliance Committee for the NASDAQ-listed, European sports wagering company, Codere Online (CDRO).

He received his Bachelor of Journalism degree and his Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

AnnMarie Geddes joins the new combined entity as Chief Accounting Officer, bringing extensive experience to the broader management and leadership team. She is responsible for managing all aspects of the Accounting Organization, which include responsibility for global financial accuracy, company financial statements, statutory, tax and jurisdictional financial reporting, internal controls and internal audit, Accounts Payable, Invoicing and Collections, and Payroll.

Prior to coming to IGT, AnnMarie held many positions in all areas of Finance and has served as CAO at several public companies, worked on multiple acquisitions, carves, spins, etc., as well as helped take companies public. She also worked at Deloitte — a Big Four accounting firm — for 10 years. She has worked in many different industries including software, technology, mining, semiconductor, and various others with a background both in manufacturing and services. She has significant experience with building teams and leading global teams.

Mark F. Labay joins the new combined enterprise as Senior Advisor, Integration, bringing significant experience to the broader management and leadership team. Previously, Mark served as Everi’s Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer since April 2020. Prior to that, he served as the Company’s Senior Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations since April 2014. During his tenure at Everi, Mark has held several senior level positions in the areas of operations and strategic development and was Vice President of Finance and Controller from 2002-2008.

Mark graduated with honors from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a Master’s degree in Accounting.

He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and a member of the Nevada Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Andy Hendrickson is a transformative technology executive with a three-decade record of redefining the possibilities in gaming and entertainment. He is known for architecting industry-disrupting platforms and developing technologies that transform creative visions into billion-dollar franchises. Leading global teams of over 1,000 with budgets exceeding $200M, he blends strategic vision with operational excellence to deliver measurable results at scale.

As Chief Technology Officer at Aristocrat Technologies, Andy drove the company’s global technology strategy spanning mobile and on-premises real-money gaming. During his tenure, Aristocrat’s market cap grew 110% from $20B in 2021 to $42B in 2024. He spearheaded the creation of the next-generation slot design platform and Aristocrat’s online gaming division via a combined build-and-buy strategy. This positioned Aristocrat to seamlessly distribute its award-winning content worldwide.

Prior to joining Aristocrat, Andy served as CTO of Activision Publishing and led technology for some of the world’s most successful console game franchises, including Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, and Sekiro. Under his leadership, the $200M division operated multiple billion-dollar titles concurrently, serving 50M+ players, building advanced data analytics for monetization and player engagement, and maintaining privacy-compliant infrastructure in hybrid cloud environments.

At Walt Disney Animation Studios, Andy played a pivotal role in the studio’s creative and cultural resurgence, leading technology for blockbusters like Frozen ($1.13B box office). He managed a $180M annual operating plan, steered R&D, and oversaw some of the most sophisticated compute and data infrastructures in the industry.

Earlier leadership roles include Head of Technology at Pacific Data Images/DreamWorks Animation, where he enabled multi-film annual releases (Shrek 2, Madagascar), and Senior Technology Officer at Industrial Light & Magic, where he elevated visual effects to new creative frontiers.

A named inventor on multiple U.S. patents, Andy’s innovations span remote collaboration, stereoscopic depth rendering, and advanced image processing. His work has garnered film credits on landmark titles including Forrest Gump, The Mask, Men in Black, Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph, alongside numerous blockbuster gaming releases.

He holds a BA in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and is an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, SMPTE, and ACM SIGGRAPH.

Jean Venneman joins the new combined enterprise as Chief Studios Officer for IGT. She is responsible for managing nearly 20 teams and over 1,000 talented game designers spread across the world that design and develop the games for land based and online distribution in global markets. These studios have created some of the most popular games in industry history including many iterations of Wheel of Fortune, Megabucks, Prosperity Link, Tiger & Dragon and Wolf Run.

Jean has more than 30 years of experience in game development and product leadership roles. She began her career at IGT in the early 1990’s as an account executive based in Europe before relocating to Reno where for the next 13 years held several positions up to SVP Product Development.

Prior to rejoining IGT in late 2024, Jean held positions in Bally Technologies in Licensing and Product Management, bringing to the company many globally recognized brands as well as shaping the product management team. In 2018, she joined Gaming Arts as COO where her team developed the first slot games for the company and grew the footprint from zero to several thousand machines.

Jean is a graduate of the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration.