Retired Estée Lauder exec fills vacancy on Caesars board
A retired executive of Estée Lauder has been appointed to the board of directors of Caesars Entertainment Corp., the company announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday.
Denise M. Clark, a Navy veteran, becomes the first woman boardmember for Caesars since the Jan. 31 resignation of Marilyn Spiegel.
Clark is a member of the United Natural Foods board, serving on both the Audit and the Nominating &Governance committees.
She recently retired from Estée Lauder after serving as chief information officer of the $12 billion skin care company from 2012 to 2017. Clark was responsible for information technology and partnering to build the company’s omni-channel capabilities that connected digital, online and in-store offerings.
Caesars has been seeking a board member since Spiegel resigned for personal reasons.
“Although none of the company’s current directors is a woman following the resignation of Marilyn Spiegel … the board, led by the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, is actively engaged in a process to identify qualified women and minority candidates to add to our board,” the company said in a proxy statement filed with the SEC in April.
The presence of women on corporate boards of gaming companies has been in the spotlight this year since the release of a study by Catalyst, a nonprofit advocate for women in business, found that women held only 21.2 percent of seats on the boards of S&P 500 companies.
Las Vegas’ six largest gaming employers — Caesars, MGM Resorts International, Boyd Gaming Corp., Wynn Resorts Ltd., Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Red Rock Resorts — have increased the number of women on their corporate boards this year. In February, eight of 57 board members were women; three months later, 12 of 60 board positions were held by women.
“I’m pleased to be joining the Caesars board as the company enters into its next phase of growth and development,” Clark said in a statement issued by the company. “I look forward to working with my fellow directors and the management team as the company continues to execute on its strategies to deliver increased and sustainable long-term value.”
Clark served as the senior vice president and chief information officer for Hasbro from 2007 to 2012. Before Hasbro, Clark spent seven years at Mattel, where she served as chief technology officer.
She began her business career at Apple Computer. Prior to that, Clark served for 13 years in the Navy and specialized in advanced cryptology for the National Security Agency. She retired with the rank of lieutenant commander.
The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.
