Wynn Resorts announced Friday that Jacqui Krum will succeed Ellen Whittemore as general counsel and executive vice president of Wynn Resorts following Whittemore’s retirement in early 2025. Krum is currently general counsel and senior vice president at Wynn Resorts’s Encore Boston Harbor in Massachusetts.
Whittemore, who also serves as secretary for Wynn Resorts, Ltd., has led the company’s legal and government affairs, philanthropic and community relations, and sustainability activities since 2018. She has been instrumental in the company’s efforts to enhance its workplace culture, corporate ethics, and governance, the company said in a statement.
Whittemore will continue to serve on the Wynn Macau, Ltd. Board of Directors and act as a consultant to the company.
“Ellen Whittemore was, in the truest sense, the right person at the right time to help lead Wynn Resorts through a thicket of litigation and corporate-governance changes,” said Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings. “Ellen’s track record, including her reputation as a person of the highest integrity, was essential in working with regulators, our board, and employees during a time of transition and change. Recently, Ellen led the successful effort to resolve key legal and litigation matters overhanging the company. Ellen devoted her efforts to making us a better company and she succeeded.”
Krum originally joined Wynn Resorts in 2013 to assist with the development of gaming projects in the U.S. and abroad and was a member of the team that won the competitive gaming license bid in eastern Massachusetts for Wynn Resorts. In 2015, she moved from Las Vegas to Boston to become the senior vice president and general counsel at Encore Boston Harbor, helping to lead its opening in 2019.
Before joining Wynn Resorts, Krum served as vice president and general counsel of the divisions of MGM Resorts International responsible for gaming and nongaming projects globally. She also held a partner position in the Los Angeles office of Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard & Shapiro, LLP.
Krum received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of California Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and international relations, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in cultural anthropology, summa cum laude, from the University of California Santa Barbara.
The Nevada Resort Association released a statement on the retirement of Whittemore, who has served as the Association’s chair.
“As Chair of the Nevada Resort Association’s Board of Directors, Ellen has provided strategic leadership, clear vision, and wise counsel during our industry’s darkest period – the pandemic,” the statement read. “As our industry pulled together to bring people back to work and focus on the region’s economic recovery, Ellen worked tirelessly, advocating for policies to speed the recovery, while fostering collaboration across a wide range of stakeholders to find solutions to our biggest challenges. Ellen has been one of the Association’s most effective chairs.”
Few have influenced and advanced the gaming and resort industry as significantly as Whittemore, according to the Association.
“For nearly four decades, Ellen has advocated for a strong, transparent, and ethical gaming industry,” the statement read. “As one of America’s preeminent gaming attorneys, she has championed laws and regulations that offered consumers trust in the games, established high standards for licensees and set Nevada’s No. 1 industry on a course to become the envy of the world. As executive vice president and general counsel for Wynn Resorts, Ellen has an impressive list of achievements, including an unwavering commitment to workplace culture, corporate responsibility, and governance, positioning Wynn Resorts as one of the nation’s most respected corporations.”
