Columbia Sussex, Tropicana Casinos Hire New CFO
AUGUST 3, 2007. John G. Jacob has been named Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Columbia Sussex Corporation, Tropicana Casinos and Resorts/ Tropicana Entertainment, according to an announcement by William J. Yung, owner and CEO of the two companies. Jacob, who has more than 20 years of financial management and accounting experience, will assume his position with Columbia Sussex and with Tropicana following appropriate gaming regulatory reviews.
"John has the cost management, consumer product and M&A credentials required to lead the finance units of the companies' hotel and casino businesses," said Yung. "His background includes work with both large and small companies, an important factor for us because we have multiple cost centers of varying scale that need to be unified in approach and accounting output.
"He also has both public and private company accounting experience, so he will be able to oversee our public debt reporting and casino regulatory filings," Yung continued.
From 1999 to 2006, Jacob was Chief Financial Officer of Acorn Products, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, where he helped lead a turnaround of the publicly traded garden tool company prior to its sale to Ames True Temper last year. As CFO he executed capital restructuring programs and led cost efficiency drives that resulted in millions of dollars in savings.
During the 1990s, Jacob worked as a vice president of finance for three consumer product and package goods companies: Sun Apparel/Polo Jeans, Maidenform Worldwide, and Kayser-Roth Corporation. In each position he was responsible for efficiency-producing cost structure and working capital programs in addition to oversight of accounting and control.
Earlier in his career, from 1986 to 1991, Jacob was a customer accounting and project manager for Unisys Corporation, a $10 billion computer hardware and software company. His time with Unisys included a two-year posting to the company's Japan operations.
Following graduation from the University of Michigan School of Business with his MBA in finance and international business, Jacob earned his CPA certification and worked for Southfield, Michigan, based Plante & Morgan where he was an audit supervisor in the regional accounting firm. Jacob's undergraduate bachelor's degree was also earned at Michigan where he was an honors graduate of the School of Business Administration.
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