Leadership Team
SPIELO International’s Global Leadership Team represents an unparalleled depth of experience and gaming industry knowledge.
A multi-national force hailing from numerous countries and cultures, the team boasts expertise from both operator and supplier sides of the business.
As leaders of a dedicated workforce 2,100 employees strong, SPIELO International’s leadership team is committed to our corporate mission of having more people than ever before playing our games, anywhere, anytime, on anything. They appreciate the importance of listening to what our customers want, and providing great game content, solutions, and services in response to those needs.
Walter Bugno
Walter Bugno is President and CEO of SPIELO International, a subsidiary of the Lottomatica Group. He is responsible for managing and overseeing the long‐term strategic direction of SPIELO International, including the future technology and content development objectives, in order to achieve market leadership in the government‐sponsored and commercial gaming industries across all online and land‐based gaming channels around the world.
Walter joined Lottomatica in July 2010. From 2006 to 2009, he was the CEO, Casinos, for Tabcorp Holdings Limited, Australia's premier gambling and entertainment group. During his tenure, Walter transformed the business from being product‐driven to customer‐driven by revitalizing the customer casino experience with new loyalty programs, products, and customer service. Some of his successes included a new 12‐year exclusive casino license with the New South Wales government, expanded gaming products, and increased market share.
Prior to Tabcorp, Walter was President of Campbell Soup Company in Asia Pacific from 2002 to 2006. He was responsible for Campbell's food products, manufacturing, and distribution. He was previously managing director of Lion Nathan Australia, a division of Lion, one of Australasia’s leading beverage and food companies.
A lifelong football (soccer) enthusiast, he was the inaugural chairman of Sydney's professional football club from 2004 to 2006. He has a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Commerce from the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Victor Duarte
As Senior Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of SPIELO International, Victor Duarte is responsible for SPIELO’s operations worldwide. In this role, Victor leads the Company’s sales, market development and growth strategies, and he is responsible for all operational activities of SPIELO International including marketing, customer service, operations, manufacturing and technology.
Victor has more than 17 years of experience in the lottery and gaming industry, having started at GTECH in 1995 before moving to SPIELO International in 2004. During his career, he has held various roles of increasing responsibility, including leadership positions in international operations, technology, and finance. Prior to the unification of the former SPIELO and Atronic businesses into the SPIELO International structure, Victor was the President and CEO of SPIELO Manufacturing ULC.
Before joining SPIELO International, he served as Vice President, GTECH Technology Services, where he was responsible for directing GTECH’s worldwide software services activities. Under his leadership, the organization was able to achieve CMM level 3 certification in two separate technology hubs. Earlier in his GTECH career, Victor held senior financial positions in lottery operations and technology.
Early in his career, he worked for Ernst & Young in the United States and Europe. Victor holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Rhode Island.
Lavaz Watson
As Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, Lavaz Watson is responsible for developing and delivering all financial infrastructure and reporting for SPIELO International. He oversees business evaluation and market analysis, financial planning and forecasting, financial reporting, and he ensures compliance to relevant financial and accounting standards including International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), and German Commercial Code (HGB).
Lavaz joined SPIELO International in 2004 as Vice President of Finance and Integration. Prior to that, he served as Director of Finance Process Improvement for GTECH, where he was responsible for reengineering GTECH’s finance processes and leading the integration of strategic acquisitions into the company’s core processes. He quickly advanced his career through a progression of positions of increasing levels and responsibilities in Corporate Finance, Commercial Services, and Gaming Solutions, broadening his areas of responsibility to include operations and technology as well as finance.
Prior to joining GTECH, Lavaz was a Senior Manager with KPMG Peat Marwick, where he led a team of client service professionals in providing strategic, financial, and economic consulting.
Robin Drummond
As Vice-President and General Manager of Public Gaming Robin leads SPIELO International’s continued growth in the Public Gaming arena, both on the Video Lottery Central System side and the Video Lottery Terminal (VLT) side. Most recently, this has included leading SPIELO International’s success in the Canadian VLT replacement cycle and the launch of new VLT programs in Kansas, Maryland and Illinois. Robin also manages SPIELO International’s VLT operator markets, as well as venue-based VLT programs including those in Rhode Island, Delaware, and New York.
Prior to joining SPIELO International in 2003, Robin spent 12 years with Alcatel in sales, marketing and development leadership roles, including Vice President, Marketing and Business Development for one of Alcatel’s business units. While with Alcatel, Robin gained extensive international experience directing marketing activities across six countries and three continents, including North America. This experience included a multi-year assignment based in Europe.
Robin has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick. He is active in community organizations, especially literacy and adoption groups. Robin currently serves as Chair of the New Brunswick Adoption Foundation.
Marcel Heutmekers
Marcel Heutmekers is the Vice-President and General Manager International Casino, overseeing the casino games and terminals business in the International Casino territory, which includes Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Marcel has gained extensive knowledge of the industry in the last 14 years, during which he held several senior management positions for both suppliers as well as casino operators. The longest period on the supplier side has been with ATRONIC (2001-2006), where he was in charge of new business development and responsible for the opening of various new markets across the world and the introduction of new business models. He gained the most experience on the operator side when he worked for Holland Casino, where he was in charge of the slot department which covered an install base of 7,000 machines across 14 casinos. Due to this experience on both sides, Marcel has a very good understanding of what operators expect from a supplier, and how player demands across the globe have developed and changed over the years.
Marcel holds a Masters degree in Latin American Studies and successfully completed an MBA-study in Casino Management in 2004. In addition, he completed the Executive Development Program from the University of Nevada.
Prior to accepting this position, Heutmekers was the Senior Director and General Manager for Emerging Markets for SPIELO International.
Marc Attal
Marc Attal has been responsible for the continued expansion and success of SPIELO International´s Casino Systems division since 2009. He began his career with SPIELO International in 2003 as the Head of Services in Monaco, rapidly moving to Director of Professional Services in 2004, and then adding Product Management to his remit in 2007. Today Marc is responsible for driving the strategy for the casino systems segment while ensuring that financial plans are met.
Prior to joining SPIELO International, Marc ran his own consulting company, amGroup, which specialized in software implementation for asset management and banks. Marc was also Managing Director at Decalog/Sungard, the global provider of asset management software for large institutions with activity on three continents. Marc`s experience includes serving as the European Support Director for trading room technical analyst tools and realtime data feed for Bridge/Reuters; as well as consulting for Diagram/Reuters to implement back/middle office software for French banks.
Marc’s qualifications include Stock Charts Analyst AFATE (1995); MBA in Risk Management for Banks Ceram (1991); and Electronic & Signal Processing Engineer CPE (1990).
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