Gary William Loveman is an American business executive and former academic. He is the current Chief Executive Officer and President of Caesars Entertainment Corporation since January 2003; President of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (renamed Caesars Entertainment in 2010) since April 2001; various executive positions at Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. from May 1998 to April 2001.

Early life

Loveman graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Connecticut's Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...

 in 1982 and received his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in economics from the MIT Sloan School of Management

MIT Sloan School of Management

The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....

.

Career

Before joining Harrah's as Chief Operating Officer in 1998, he spent two years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, running regression analysis on the impact of the burgeoning budget deficit on interest rates and was a professor at the Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...

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As CEO, Loveman has concentrated on attracting average gamblers to Caesars casinos with a direct mail marketing and customer loyalty program, Total Rewards, instead of targeting only high rollers or creating family friendly attractions. His strategy makes gaming, rather than hotels, performance venues or other associated ventures, responsible for the vast majority of Caesars revenues. Results have been mixed. Despite good media coverage, and a reputation for sophistication and technology savvy, during Loveman's tenure, Caesars operating results, share price and valuation mostly have underperformed its peers.

Under Loveman, Harrah's has grown into the world's largest gaming

Gambling

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

 corporation

Corporation

A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...

. He has pursued several major acquisitions as CEO, including Harrah's 2005 purchase of Caesars Entertainment, the owners of Caesars Palace

Caesars Palace

Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, an unincorporated township in Clark County, Nevada, United States in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp....

. Most notably, in December 2006, Harrah's was acquired and taken private by private equity firms TPG and Apollo, in one of the then largest buyouts of the time. Unfortunately, the company has not performed well since then, causing its new owners to take significant write downs and renegotiate with lenders. In December 2010, Harrah's was compelled to withdraw the company's attempt at a new public offering because of its inability to attract sufficient new public market institutional investors.

Caesars operates from Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, but Loveman commutes from suburban Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

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He is also a partial owner of the Boston Breakers, a Womens Professional Soccer team.