A leadership transition has been announced by GAN following the surprise resignation of Dermot Smurfit as Chief Executive Officer, which brings down the curtain on a 21-year stint in the role.
Seamus McGill, the current Chair of the company’s board, will step in as Interim CEO as of September 26, 2023, with Smurfit, who remains a substantial stockholder, and GAN in negotiations over a potential consultation role.
McGill, who is nearing a ten year anniversary after initially joining the group’s board in April 2014, boasts 23 years of experience in the gaming and technology industries.
Previous roles include being President of JOINGO, and a five year stay at Aristocrat Technologies as Chief Operating Officer, where he helped drive growth in North America, including changing the strategic focus to recurring revenue games.
In addition, McGill has also been President of Cyberview Technology, and held various positions at WMS Gaming. He started his career in gaming with Mikohn Gaming.
“On behalf of the entire board and GAN team, I want to extend our appreciation to Dermot for his commitment to the company since joining twenty years ago,” McGill explained.
“Under Mr. Smurfit’s leadership, GAN experienced many great accomplishments and reached numerous milestones as a company.
“Having served on the board since 2014, I have a deep understanding of the company, our talented teams, and our market position.
“I am honoured to assume leadership of all of the company’s executive functions and have been heavily involved in our ongoing strategic review process.
“We will continue to evaluate the indications of interest that we have received and will work to optimise the process and its outcome for shareholders in due course.”
Last month, GAN reflected on a mixed second quarter as group wide revenue was hit by a dropoff in performance for its B2B unit, with B2C operations remaining steady as net loss was chipped away at.
The group informed its NYSE investors that revenue fell slightly by three per cent during Q2 from $35m to £33.8m, whilst adjusted EBITDA dropped significantly from $1.3m to a loss of $2m, attributed primarily to the performance of its B2B segment.
