Emerging Leaders

Big Ideas = Big Success

Lisa Kerbawy Director of Marketing, FireKeepers Casino Hotel

Lisa Kerbawy, the director of marketing at FireKeepers Casino Hotel, has built a successful career in the casino industry through creativity, perseverance and teamwork.

Originally, Kerbawy planned on a career in event management, but one day 13 years ago, as she was driving on the highway to her grandmother’s funeral, she noticed the new FireKeepers Casino Hotel signage inviting people to apply to work for the new casino. As her “Nana” enjoyed casinos, Kerbawy used this as a sign to apply and to start a new journey in gaming. Shortly thereafter, Kerbawy was hired for special events and promotions.

Prior to FireKeepers, Kerbawy was an event planner for a historic event venue in Michigan. Entering the casino industry presented a new challenge for her, but she tackled it head-on. With her background, Kerbawy liked creating entertainment experiences, making things happen behind the scenes, and watching everyone enjoy the results of her hard work. She applied that background to her new career by thinking of new and refreshing ways to put on promotions and events.

In one instance, when creating a November VIP slot tournament, Kerbawy looked for a way to immerse players into a unique atmosphere by transforming a ballroom into a replica log cabin complete with a log cabin porch entrance, comfortable sitting areas, and a giant stone fireplace facade.

Another time, Kerbawy put her own twist on the traditional travel package. Instead of a trip giveaway where the destination is already decided, she proposed the idea that the winner goes around the world with a $100,000 travel certificate and has the freedom to select the destination(s).

Kerbawy is very persistent. When she has an idea that she believes will work, she fights for it. Earlier in her career, Kerbawy pitched the unprecedented idea of an eight-car giveaway in one day. Despite her strong pitch and belief in the idea, management had concerns. They said to her, “Why give away eight cars in one day when you can spread it out over several weekends?”

However, Kerbawy did not give up. She knew that giving away so many cars in one day would generate a lot of excitement for the property. She repeatedly pitched the idea until eventually management compromised: an eight-car giveaway split over two weekends.

The giveaway was so successful that it led to an agreement for a one-day, five-car giveaway the next year. FireKeepers has continued the multi-car promotion to this day. It has become a staple of the property’s annual marketing plans and has generated a majority of their Top 10 revenue days.

Kerbawy lives by the belief of not being afraid of big ideas, and she looks back at the success of the car giveaway promotion as the epitome of that belief.

Teamwork is another attribute Kerbawy has embraced in her career. As she has progressed and learned, Kerbawy values that others have expertise where she isn’t as fluent. As she puts it, it is necessary to “rely on others who are experts in order to achieve your own goals.”

Kerbawy has embraced big and new ideas, persisting even when others wanted to take the traditional route, and leaned on others for help in order to achieve her goals. As a result, she is grateful that her hard work has been recognized in the form of being named to the 40 Under 40 list.

“It is truly an honor to be a part of this group of industry leaders,” she says. “To be nominated with such a wide pool of quality candidates and to be able to represent such a wonderful company/ tribe that continues to thrive in the industry is incredible.”

—Alex Goldstein is an analyst with The Innovation Group.

The Fun Factor

Harley Rockhill III Director of Business Intelligence, Inter Miami FC

Amarine and a trapeze artist.

Waiting for a punchline? There is none. Just part of the resume of Harley Rockhill III.

The central theme of Rockhill’s career to date is the business of fun.

“I love the entertainment, hospitality and sports industries, and can’t imagine having a career in any other field,” says the Princeton, New Jersey native.

Rockhill leads business intelligence for the Major League Soccer club Inter Miami CF, including pricing and strategies.

“The department that my team and I are building is focused on helping the club manage the data from multiple systems and workstreams,” he says.

He also attends Florida International University working on a doctorate.

Back to the marine and the trapeze.

After four years in the Marine Corps, Rockhill enrolled at Florida State University, one of two colleges in the U.S. with a circus curriculum. On a dare from his friends, he said he can perform on the trapeze. He auditioned. A year and 100 performances later he received an offer to instruct others on the trapeze in Club Med in Thailand.

“If my father hadn’t had a stroke, I probably wouldn’t have left,” he says.

After his father’s stroke, Rockhill returned to school for his MBA in management and operations at Florida State, where he also earned his B.S. As graduation approached, a friend suggested relocating to Las Vegas. He first job was with Trapeze Las Vegas, where he taught trapeze. The job paid most of the bills while he cold-called casino executives.

“I was interested in revenue management,” Rockhill says. He received a call from Caesars Vice President of Revenue Management James Larsen, now his most valuable and closest mentor. He hired Rockhill as a junior revenue manager.

By the time Covid-19 took hold in the U.S., Rockhill was working with BSE Global and the Brooklyn Nets.

“I count myself as incredibly fortunate throughout this pandemic,” he says. “I was able to keep my position when most sports teams were furloughing or reducing staff.”

It wasn’t Covid that took him away from the Nets. It was the thought of another winter in the Northeast. “I’m not great with weather below 70 degrees. I’ll take 85 degrees and 90 percent humidity over trudging through the snow in New York City.”

Rockhill returned to Las Vegas.

He joined the new Resorts World Las Vegas, leading the enterprise analytics division of the revenue management department.

“I had the chance to work with most departments to develop and implement strategies for all the property’s non-hotel assets—pool cabanas, valet and self-park, entertainment ticketing, nightlife/day life cover and cabanas,” he explains.

But the man on the flying trapeze was on the move again. He and his fiancée moved to Miami, where he would pursue a doctorate while working for Inter Miami FC.

“I think (the doctorate) will allow me to be in an even better position to help guide a major league sports franchise, casino portfolio, or sports betting company with more profitable revenue management and partnership acquisition strategies,” he says.

Rockhill credits his mentors with telling him what he needed to hear even if it wasn’t what he wanted to hear at the time. “But a lesson I would have liked to have learned a bit earlier would have been, be the last one to give your opinion, not the first,” he says. “You don’t have to make sure everyone knows you thought of something… first. Instead, listen to everyone before passing final judgment.”

Meanwhile, Rockhill and his fiancée have a wedding to plan this fall. Add to that the MLS season is starting up. Still, once a week, the couple have a date night.

But if he wants to really decompress, Rockhill finds a trapeze.

—Bill Sokolic

Card Sharp

Steph Nel Managing Director, Americas, TCSJohnHuxley

Think of a croupier as the CFO of the table game crew, handling the money in and the money out. And in that world, Steph Nel began his journey in the casino industry in 2000 with the Southern Sun Montecasino in suburban Johannesburg. The South African native excelled and in 2003 he ascended to table games supervisor at Gold Reef City Casino.

Being a croupier “helped in all aspects of my life,” Nel says. “It taught me many life lessons as all dealers are customer-facing, so conflict resolution, empathy, dedication with shift work and most people skills. It also gave me insight into my current role to better understand our customers as I have worked in operations.”

More than 20 years later, Nel is still at it. Since 2007, he’s spent much of his career with TCSJohnHuxley, a leading manufacturer of table games equipment.

“We supply and manufacturer anything from wheels to chippers, display boards for all table games, accessories, gaming layouts and now dice. Basically, anything that goes with table games, we can help out,” he says.

After almost six years with TCSJohnHuxley in South Africa, Nel hooked up with Axes Network. Axes is a cloud-based casino enterprise management solution company that creates tools and applications to manage cashless transactions, loyalty and rewards programs and similar operational functions for casinos. He was vice president of sales in South Africa and then chief commercial officer.

But TCSJohnHuxley came calling again. The opportunity included a move to the U.K.

“As much as I loved living in South Africa, it was an opportunity to move to a world-class city as I was based out of London,” Nel says.

He returned in early 2015 as senior business development manager. In 2017, he became general manager for the Americas, and transferred to Las Vegas. In 2020, he was elevated to managing director for the Americas, his position today.

“Las Vegas is such a beautiful city with magnificent contrasts,” Nel says. “I enjoy going out to the hustle and bustle of the Strip but adore being out in nature. The desert holds a special time. Every time I go out I tend to find something else to fall in love with.”

When Nel worked for TCSJohnHuxley in South Africa, his boss and mentor, John Whiskin, helped guide his career.

“Through his tutelage I grew as an individual with some of his pearls of wisdom I still use today,” he says. “Sadly, he passed away in 2017 and I miss him every day.”

Covid-19 is something now in the rearview mirror, but it changed the landscape forever, he says. Nel and his team managed to adapt to it.

“We used the time to reshape how we approach business, and I feel we are sharper and more focused than before,” he says. “I think everyone changed. Who would have ever thought the world would be at a standstill? I feel it showed us that we need to sometimes think that the unthinkable can happen. Life can change in a heartbeat, and not to sound too cliché, but don’t sweat the small stuff and be in the moment. It can be at work or in your personal life. It can all change tomorrow.”

— Bill Sokolic