New MGM CEO Hornbuckle receives a pay increase, but won’t see it until 2021

July 31, 2020 9:42 PM
  • Howard Stutz, CDC Gaming Reports
July 31, 2020 9:42 PM
  • Howard Stutz, CDC Gaming Reports

Newly appointed MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle earned a pay increase, but he won’t see it until next January.

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In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday afternoon, MGM boosted Hornbuckle’s annual base salary to $1.5 million annually through 2024. The new contract also calls for annual bonuses starting next year of 175% of his base salary.

Hornbuckle, 62, who is also president of MGM, is currently earning $1.1 million in salary, which he had previously elected to take in restricted stock when he was elevated to acting CEO at the end of March.

Hornbuckle previously held in the company’s No. 2 senior-level corporate role and has been with MGM since 1998, serving in numerous corporate positions, property executive roles, and development areas – nationally and internationally.  He succeeded Jim Murren, who had announced his intentions to leave as chairman and CEO in February.

The company announced it had removed the acting designation from Hornbuckle on Wednesday.

He took over the leadership of MGM just after the company closed its entire casino portfolio due to the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March.

Beginning at the end of May, MGM reopened much of its portfolio of more than two dozen properties in six states, including all its Las Vegas properties except Park MGM and The Mirage. The company’s MGM Grand Detroit will open next week, but the Empire City Casino in New York will remain closed.

At the outset of Wednesday’s second-quarter conference call, Hornbuckle thanked MGM Chairman Paul Salem and the company’s board, “for placing their confidence in me and in our entire management team. This is a vote for them – for not only them but also myself. They have stepped up during an incredibly challenging time.”

MGM furloughed much of its 63,000-person workforce nationwide at the pandemic’s outset. Company CFO Corey Sanders said on the conference call less than 50% of the employees were returned to their jobs as the company began reopening properties around the U.S.

“I’m not sure we’ll see a change in that anytime in the near future,” he said.  MGM filed WARN Act letters in the states that it operates, notifying workers they could be subject to layoffs, some potentially as soon as Friday.

The company did establish and fund an employee assistance program to help workers meet their financial obligations.

Shares of MGM Resorts closed Friday at $16.09 on the New York Stock Exchange, down 55 cents or 3.31%.

Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.