5 joining executive team at Fontainebleau Las Vegas

Fontainebleau Las Vegas has added five gaming industry leaders, including three with recent experience at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, to its executive team.

Colleen Birch has been named chief operating officer; Stephen Singer is the company’s new chief financial officer; Daniel Espino has been chosen to be its chief people officer; Marc Guarino is the chief technology officer; and Stacie Michaels has been named general counsel. They’ll join Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Soffer in preparing for Fontainebleau Las Vegas’ opening, scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to a news release.

Birch will oversee the day-to-day operations at the 67-story, 3,700-room Strip resort. She has more than 25 years of experience in hotel operations, revenue optimization and customer relationship marketing. And most recently spent 13 years at The Cosmopolitan, where she helped open the resort in 2010 and became senior vice president of revenue optimization.

Singer, a Las Vegas native, previously served as executive vice president of acquisitions and capital markets for Fontainebleau Development. Singer has a background in finance, accounting, strategic business planning, negotiations, and partnerships through more than a decade of experience serving in senior strategy roles for private real estate and development firm Witkoff, Paragon Gaming and The Cosmopolitan.

Espino will be responsible for developing the organizational “cross-brand human capital strategy” for Fontainebleau Las Vegas, working with executive leadership on the company’s organizational culture and growth objectives. He previously served more than 12 years as chief people officer for The Cosmopolitan.

Guarino has more than 25 years of experience in hospitality and gaming technologies. He most recently served as senior vice president and chief information officer at Brookfield Asset Management’s Atlantis Paradise Island.

Michaels most recently was a partner with Argentum Law in Las Vegas and spent 10 years at Wynn Las Vegas, where she began as corporate counsel and rose to the rank of senior vice president, general counsel and secretary. Michaels will oversee all legal matters for Fontainebleau Las Vegas, including contracts, negotiations and compliance, while providing legal advice and strategy to the executive team, and advising members on legislation and legal rights that impact the property.

The executive hires follows an announcement from last week that the company, partnering with Koch Real Estate Investments, secured a $2.2 billion loan assuring that the long-delayed project would be completed on schedule next year.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.