Penn National Gaming announce corporate appointments

The role was previously held by Timothy J. Wilmott, who was named Chief Executive Officer in November 2013 concurrent with the spin-off of Gaming and Leisure Properties. Snowden and Fair will report directly to Wilmott, and both appointments are subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Tim Wilmott commented on the appointments, “We are delighted to announce Jay’s promotion and the addition of B. J. to our team of proven operations, finance, marketing, project development and legal executives. Since the spin-off, we have appointed experienced executives to senior management positions, including CFO, COO and Chief Development Officer, positioning us to optimize the results of our growing regional gaming portfolio and deliver excellent entertainment experiences to our patrons while pursuing opportunities to further expand the scale and diversity of our operations, and build value for shareholders.”

As Chief Operating Officer,  Snowden will be responsible for the Company’s regional gaming operations, marketing, human resources and IT functions.    Snowden joined Penn National in 2011 following over 12 years at Caesars Entertainment in several regional and destination markets, including Nevada, California, Missouri, and New Jersey. Immediately prior to joining Penn National, he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of both Caesars Atlantic City and Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City.   

Snowden began his career with Caesars in 1998 with a financial planning and analysis role prior to being named Slot Performance Manager at Harrah’s Las Vegas. In 2000, he assisted in the design and development of Harrah’s Rincon in San Diego before becoming that property’s Vice President and Assistant General Manager upon opening. In 2003, he became Vice President and Assistant General Manager of Harrah’s St. Louis and, soon thereafter, served as acting General Manager.

In 2005, he was appointed Senior Vice President and General Manager of Showboat Atlantic City, where he oversaw construction of a $65 million expansion project, and was given additional responsibility as Senior Vice President and General Manager at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City in 2008.
Snowden earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and an Executive Masters in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

B. J. Fair brings 30 years of real estate and resort operation experience to the role of Senior Vice President, Chief Development Officer including senior management positions at leading consumer entertainment entities with large scale development projects including American Skiing Company, Universal Studios and Disney Development Company. At Penn National,    Fair will be responsible for corporate growth and development initiatives as well as project development including design and construction.

 Fair previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of American Skiing Company where he had oversight of ten ski mountain resorts (Steamboat, The Canyons, Heavenly, Killington, Pico, Mount Snow, Sunday River, Sugarloaf, Sugarbush and Attitash) which included ski operations, nine hotels, condominium operations, food and beverage operations, retail and rental operations, real estate brokerage and development.    Fair orchestrated the financial turn-around of the company which culminated in the successful sale of all of the resorts.

Prior to American Skiing, Fair was President and Director of Universal Studios Port Aventura in Tarragona, Spain. In this role,  Fair was responsible for establishing the strategic direction, business planning and master planning to grow the regional theme park and surrounding 2,000 acres into an international resort destination, including the planning and development of two 500 room on-property resort hotels.   

Fair joined Universal in 1996 as Senior Vice President, Business Planning in the Universal Creative Division which was responsible for the design and construction of the Universal Studios theme parks where he led the design and preconstruction team on the Universal Studios Osaka project.

From 1992 to 1996  Fair was with the Disney Development Company as the Director of Finance and Business Planning focusing on the development and economic feasibility of the $1.4 billion Disneyland Resort Project. Fair began his career in master planned community development holding senior positions in the development of the Monarch Beach community in Southern California. Fair has previously served on the Board of Directors of numerous companies including American Skiing and Squaw Valley Ski Corp.

Fair earned a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Economics and Political Science from Claremont Mens College (now Claremont McKenna College) in Claremont, California and a Masters in Business Administration from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.