Skip to the content of this page
2006 Fast 50
Gamal Aziz, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
President and Chief Operating Officer
Las Vegas - NV US
The big idea: In 25 words or less, please highlight why readers should care about this Fast 50 nominee
Gamal Aziz is developing at record pace, establishing new standards, and redefining the Las Vegas experience, elevating the city’s reputation to world-class in all categories.
Please describe the creative and business achievements of the Fast 50
nominee (whether it's yourself, someone you admire, or someone you
work with).
(suggested length: 250 words)
Las Vegas is America’s most popular escape. Visionary Gamal Aziz has led its renaissance the last 10 years, elevating the town’s reputation for cheap eats to a world-class entertainment, dining and nightlife mecca. Over the next decade, his vision is to continue to drive the city’s “wow” factor as a must-experience getaway by innovating at record speed, partnering with leaders in diverse industries who haven’t yet considered developing in the desert, and creating mini-cities within properties so guests won’t ever have to leave your building to soak up all aspects of the great adventure that is Vegas. Born in Cairo, Egypt, Gamal worked at world-class resorts on four continents before joining Caesars Palace in 1995. He felt passionately that by elevating the quality of offerings, Vegas could shed its 99¢ shrimp cocktail image and become chic and decadent and more profitable by attracting a broader customer base. At Caesars, Gamal first introduced the concept that food and beverage could be a moneymaker instead of a giveaway to attract would-be gamblers. His approach caught the attention of mogul Steve Wynn, who hired him 7 months before opening Bellagio in 1998. Within weeks, Gamal changed the casino’s entire food and beverage concept by convincing name-brand chefs to open restaurants in the $1.1 billion resort. The approach was a success, and has since been imitated throughout Las Vegas. Today more than 20% of any property’s revenue comes from food and beverage, and the world’s top chefs – from Wolfgang Puck to Joel Robuchon – flock to the city. In 10 years, Gamal helped Vegas shed its prime rib buffet reputation, and become America’s top culinary destination after New York. The city even has its own Le Cordon Bleu culinary arts college now. Gamal’s contributions to elevating Las Vegas haven’t only been in food and beverage. In 2001, Gamal was named President and COO of MGM Grand, and his vision to invigorate the world’s largest hotel led him to once again pioneer concepts that are quickly becoming staples of all Vegas resorts. In four years, Gamal has opened more than 30 major new retail, dining, nightlife, gaming, and entertainment outlets, each with a focus on quality and innovation, each winning key awards in its product category. MGM Grand was the first to introduce ultra lounge nightclubs (Tabu, Teatro, Centrifuge), coinless gaming (Ticket In Ticket Out), boutique hotels within a hotel (Skylofts, The West Wing, The Mansion), skyboxes in sports books, Hollywood stylists (Cristophe of Beverly Hills), and more. Gamal was also the first to import world-renowned architects (Adam Tihany, Tony Chi, Jeffrey Beers, Yabu Pushelberg, Peter Bentel), international fashion designers (Tadashi, Hugo Boss, Dolce & Gabana), and techno giants (Reactrix, Roger Parent) to assist in the makeover. What’s more, Gamal feels strongly about philanthropy and has led his 9,200 employees in making the largest employee contribution from any single business unit in the United States for five years running. In 2005, employees donated $1.6 million to local charities. The results of Gamal’s vision have been phenomenal for the city – Vegas is now THE place to see and be seen in America, is continuously one of the nation’s fastest growing cities, and has an international reputation for A-list dining, nightlife and entertainment. Results have also been record-breaking for MGM Grand with the property experiencing 9 consecutive quarters of year over year EBITDA growth.
What skills has the nominee used to obtain these results? Please focus your entry around particularly novel or unique approaches, spectacular innovations, and creative insights.
(suggested length: 250 words)
Gamal lives by the truism that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. He also believes the most effective way to change public and employee perception about your brand is to constantly innovate with rapid, sweeping changes. At MGM Grand, he set a strategic goal to develop a “Culture of Innovation” that would transform the property by introducing one new venue every 90 days for four years. He exceeded expectations and opened more than 30 major new outlets in 48 months. But he didn’t just focus on creating new venues for customers; success also came from creating unique employee and training programs that supported these changes, and helped push thousands of workers – from line level to management – further up in the organization as a means of growing talent as he grew the company. The last two years, nearly 25% of the workforce has transferred or been promoted into better positions by taking advantage of the many free training opportunities Gamal has created for every level of the workforce. For those at the executive level, Gamal established the prestigious Leadership Institute as part of the on-site, multi-million dollar MGM Grand University. The Leadership Institute recruits 19 “rising stars” from the executive ranks to participate in a 6-month program taught by top university professors and consultants, U.S. Senators and members of Congress, and top industry execs. The purpose is to build internal bench strength by helping high-achievers understand the global vision of the company as it grows and innovates at a rapid pace. The promotion rate for graduates exceeds 50%. Gamal also created REACH in partnership with the local Culinary Union, a 6-month program that teaches supervisory skills to classes of 50 line-level employees, and provides job coaches and mentors for career pathing. Since line-level and supervisory positions interact the most with guests, this is an essential group to develop. The promotion rate exceeds 70% for REACH graduates. For middle management and new-hire managers, the company offers 40 classes and workshops on skill-building essentials. PC training, life skills workshops, conversational Spanish, English as a Second Language, U.S. Naturalization and other courses are offered to anyone in the organization with the ambition to improve their skills for promotional opportunities. Overall, MGM Grand invests an average of 160 hours of training annually for each employee. Gamal also increased employee buy-in to his Culture of Innovation by implementing Daily Pre-shifts. Across the property, MGM Grand’s 9,200 employees listen to the same 15-minute message each day about service training, property happenings, and facts about VIP guests and employee programs. Pre-shifts not only raised employee satisfaction by making them feel included in the business objectives, but increased guest loyalty and conference re-bookings. Guests are impressed that wherever they go on the 115-acre property employees know who they are and are empowered to assist them, which has given MGM Grand a competitive advantage. Pre-shifts have proven such a success that MGM Grand now markets the program to, and manages the program for, other properties. Gamal’s team also encourages employee development with unique competitions such as the Culinary Kitchen Cup Challenge that pits MGM Grand’s 16 restaurants and kitchen crews against each other in a year-long battle that mimics the popular Iron Chef TV show. Employees spend hours practicing for cook-offs on their own time, and have increased their skill levels enough to take advanced positions in the hotel’s new AAA Four-Diamond restaurants (MGM Grand is the only property in America to have four AAA Four-Diamonds under one roof). MGM Grand is proposing a city-wide competition on The Strip for 2006, and is pitching the Food Network for televised coverage. They have similar plans to introduce a bartender competition. Gamal’s Culture of Innovation allows employees to bring new ideas to the table, and then work on those projects, even if they fall outside the employee’s department or job description. His equal focus on guests and employees led the property to be named Nevada’s Best Place to Work and Gamal to be named Nevada’s Hotelier of the Year in 2005. Overall, the entire property is focused on service excellence, quality, and innovating at a rapid pace. The financial, as well as guest service and employee satisfaction results, represent an unprecedented departure from the traditional life cycle of a hotel/casino in Las Vegas – the rule being that by a certain age a property goes into demise and must be imploded for a new themed resort. Rebuilding can take three to five years – a lifetime in the competitive environment of Las Vegas. MGM Grand’s Culture of Innovation has proven you can reinvent yourself from the inside out and become more youthful as you age, and MGM’s model is influencing a phase of similar development inside properties up and down The Strip. Because of their success and Gamal’s vision which is always a step ahead of the competition, MGM Grand is the most benchmarked of any property in Las Vegas.
What does the nominee have in store for the next 10 years? How will it shape the nominee's industry, the world of business or our culture at large? Please focus this answer around the nominee's vision for the future and his or her specific plans for achieving these goals.
(suggested length: 250 words)
The Fast 50 is a list of people who will change the future. Las Vegas is still evolving and Gamal will impact the city’s development the next 10 years by continuing his commitment to innovation at record speed. The biggest future trend he will influence is that properties will become even more like mini cities, with MGM Grand leading the way. MGM Grand’s long-term development plan will find the property offering different experiences for every type of customer under one roof. Gone are the days when people thought big was bad and you can’t be all things to all people. Megaresorts will continue to evolve to allow customers to stay in one building throughout their entire trip and be able to do everything they came to Vegas to experience in one place. Guests won’t have one experience during their stay; they will have many. They can go from a large-scale arena show to an intimate theatre act, from high-energy nightclubs to quiet lounges, from luxury to urban living, from gourmet dining to casual eateries, from boutique shopping to luxury retailers, from a quiet spa to action-packed recreation. Whatever a guest desires, the Vegas of the next decade will deliver even more “wow” in mini-city packaging. In the future, the hardware will remain the same, but the software will continue to innovate to deliver whatever a guest’s mood calls for. The creation of products that capture guests’ attention will come from partnerships with technology, entertainment, retail and other industry leaders who have yet to consider expansion in Vegas. For example, Broadway is just now beginning to recognize the city as a viable performance stage because casinos are willing to spend millions to build high-tech theatres that could never be funded in New York. Plus, the city offers exposure to the world community, with more than 35 million people from around the globe flocking here each year. Raising the quality of options in Las Vegas continues to attract a higher caliber guest who has greater expectations for service and more disposable income. In 1995, gaming made up approximately 60% to 70% of a property’s revenue on The Strip. Gamal Aziz has helped grow the non-gaming entities and gambling now contributes less than 50% to the bottom line. In 10 years, that number could be 40% or less, so great and vast will be the consumer offerings for nightlife, restaurants, entertainment, retail, and recreation. Vegas, led by Gamal and MGM Grand, will continue to reinvent itself and deliver the products that keep surprising visitors and that raise the bar for development in the rest of the country.
Comments that readers have made about this submission:
I have watched Vegas' transformation over the years. Three cheers to Aziz for making it America's favorite place to escape and raising the bar for an industry that used to not be respected like it is now.
Tiffanie DeBartolo - New York, New YorkI have lived in Las Vegas for 12 years and have watched this city transform from its shrimp cocktail to 5-Diamond reputation ever since the opening of Bellagio. If Aziz is one of the masterminds behind the evolution of this city's brand – which has raised our wages, home values, and the quality of products and services we all enjoy by attracting higher end customers and more and more visitors from around the world - then he has my vote as a "fast" leader who should absolutely be recognized on your Fast 50 list.
Corrine Clement - Las Vegas, NVHave you SEEN MGM Grand lately? What a transformation the last few years. I remember when Vegas was "old school" and cheesy. It HAS elevated itself the last 10 years with high-end retail, entertainment, and restaurants, and doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon. Kudos to Aziz for his role in making Sin City the great playground we love to let our hair down in, and for continuing to raise the bar and in turn, keep us coming back year after year to see what over-the-top products are enterting the market . "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas?" Not a chance. What happens in Vegas is now being repeated in places like Dubai because indulging in personal decadence is a secret passion we all share as a reward for working so hard.
Lisa D. - Tampa, FLAn Egyptian reinventing Vegas? Could there be anything more fitting!! In a town that replicates Rome, Paris, Monte Carlo, New York, and yes, even Egypt, it's no surprise that leadership has been imported to drive the city's innovations.
EJD - San Francisco, CAThe pace at which Gamal's leadership and vision have transformed the MGM Grand is nothing short of exceptional! He is definitely a 10!
Miriam Hammond - Las Vegas, Nevada, USAI have had the opportunity to work with Gamal, and agree that he is truly a visionary in today's industry. His contributions have indeed allowed Las Vegas to evolve into the hospitlity/entertainment mecca that it has becom.
Earl Falls - Las Vegas, NV, USARepositioning an established hotel in Las Vegas from heavy theming and family destination to the resort that is setting the pace for all others, that is know as the innovater, creater and trendsetter for both unique offerings and great service is an accomplishment that is changing the entire perception of Las Vegas as a destination. Gamal has initiated this change of expectation of Las Vegas - from a gambling mecca to a resort destination with the best of restaurants, shows, hotels, shopping, clubs, recreation etc ... a true visionary that ensures the future of this town
Tobias Mattstedt - Las Vegas, NV, USAOur company never used to consider Vegas for conventions until it dropped the sleazy image a few years ago and became chic. Now we hold our conferences there every year and always at MGM Grand. Aziz has done a good job of giving credibility to this gambling town that's now more well known for A-list entertainment and world-class dining than it is for blackjack and roulette.
Tom Sanders - Dallas, TXVegas itself is "fast" - have you ever seen development happen in another city faster than it does in that desert town? I know peope who have worked for Aziz and they say he's brilliant and a consumate gentleman. I'll vote for anyone who can affect a culture shift for an entire city. You bet we'll all still be flocking to Vegas in 10 more years just to keep watching what visionaries like Aziz are dreaming up for us to play in.
James Young - Phoenix, AZIt's great to hear about someone other than Steve Wynn for once. To change the public perception and business model of an entire city in 10 years is very "fast" - Aziz has my vote and my thanks for making Vegas one of my favorite weekend getaways.
Krista Ysunza - Santa Monica, CAI always wonder who's driving the major development in Vegas these days. Aziz sounds like a visionary whose contributions rival Wynn's for changing the reputation of Las Vegas. I for one will look forward to watching what he dreams up for all of us to enjoy the next 10 years.
Darryl Walters - Seattle, WashingtonThere is no mistaking the tremendous and amazing changes that Gamal Aziz has brought to the tourist industry and work force of Las Vegas. The article does a great job of outlining his innovations in serving the customer. More needs to be said about how he has improved the community through building employee satisfaction and a strong sense of individual financial security. I have met many of the team members of MGM Grand and am continually amazed at how dedicated they are to the company. Many have been employed there since before it's opening, and they have every desire to remain there. Better yet, these team members have bought into the "culture of innovation" helping to speed the growth of the company. Aziz has my vote.
Margie Koch - Boulder City, NevadaI like this leader's equal focus on growing employees while he grows his company and ultimately the whole city of Las Vegas.
Virginia Kelley - Houston, TXGamal's innovative leaderdhip has led MGM Grand to the Trifecta-great customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and shareholder satisfaction.It sounds like he is just hitting his stride!
Allen Flagg,Jr - Las vegas, NVLove it. One of the best stories I've read. You've got my vote.
Stan P. - ChicagoAziz sounds like the kind of guy you'd like to have dinner with just to pick his brain. I wish my industry (transportation) could innovate as quickly.
Dan Behringer - Lansing, MIIts apparent that Gamal supports great inovation and imagination in whatever form it may come. Most hotels end up looing like they have been stamped out in mass, but his looks like someone took the time to make something special. You can tell its not about giving the guest what they want. It's about giving what they never dreamed possible.
Jackie Murphy - Las Vegas, NVThe words "sophistication" and "Las Vegas" never used to fit in the same sentence. Now, they seem strangely synonomous with each other. Would any of us have thought that 20 years ago? Nice, job to Aziz and his contemporaries - whoever they may be.
Peter Kozak - Cambridge, Mass.Jack Welch once said, "Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act." Working with and learning from Gamal has given me the self-confidence to act. Gamal works and thinks FAST, he has taught me to do the same!
Debra Nutton - Henderson NevadaStepping out of a casino 10 years ago into the Las Vegas that we know and love today might cause a minor stroke. However, after recovery, awe and delight will set in. Aziz has been a large part of what has made this transformation possible. The fastest of the 50. Commited to excellence in himself and others.
Nicole Drake - San Francisco, CA, United StatesStepping out of a casino 10 years ago into the Las Vegas that we know and love today might cause a minor stroke. However, after recovery, awe and delight will set in. Aziz has been a large part of what has made this transformation possible. The fastest of the 50. Commited to excellence in himself and others.
Nicole Drake - San Francisco, CA, United StatesWe need more people like Gamal Aziz to jump start our businesses with great innovation and leadership.
Robert Wing - South San Francisco, California, USAGamal Aziz has transformed the face of Vegas. Not a small feat!
Johnny Chang - Austin, TX USAYou've got my vote. Vegas has come light years from what it used to be.
James Trudeau - PortlandGenius.
Tom Kaplan - LondonGot my vote.
S. Smith - Chicago - USASounds like a winner to me. The MGM is my favorite.
CANDACE HUMPHREY - HAYWARD, CA,USASteve Wynn has been the only management story coming out of Vegas for years, but he hasn't been a "player" for a long time. He lost his company to MGM Mirage and his new hotel isn't doing as well as the Street expected. Very interesting that one of his proteges is now shaping the industry. I'd like to read more about Aziz. This was a well-written entry.
David Neubacher - Hollywood, CASteve Wynn has been the only management story coming out of Vegas for years, but he hasn't been a "player" for a long time. He lost his company to MGM Mirage and his new hotel isn't doing as well as the Street expected. Very interesting that one of his proteges is now shaping the industry. I'd like to read more about Aziz. This was a well-written entry.
David Neubacher - Hollywood, CAOne of the few entries which documents 10 years of leadership past and present.
Cynthia Zimad - BostonQuite a story - from Cairo to running the world's largest hotel and elevating how we all perceive Vegas. Gamal Aziz should make your list.
Jake Ryan - Atlanta, GeorgiaDefinitely fast!
T. Robbins - Toledo, OHIODefinitely fast. THank you, Mr. Aziz for what you've done for Las Vegas - our favorite domestic escape!
Francine Myers - Los AngelesExccellent candidate.
Marcus Redford - Palm Springs, CATalented. And fast. Aziz has my vote.
Cliff Reinhold - Malibu, CAGood story. Gets my vote for fast.
Ted Holstrum - Vacaville, Calif.His life-long ambition makes Gamal Aziz "fast" in my book. He gets my vote.
Mike Zigler - Indianapolis, IN
Featured Services
FAST 50