VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/112509
4 0 U ND ER 4 0 2 01 3 18A Julia Boguslawski Age: 33 Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications SHFL entertainment A native of Orlando who holds an MBA from Florida���s Rollins College, Julia Boguslawski likened investor relations to one part public relations and one part corporate finance. ���Investor relations is really a niche position where I���m a cheerleader, a mascot and a sports announcer all rolled into one,��� said Boguslawski, who joined SHFL entertainment ��� a leading global gaming supplier formerly known as Shuffle Master ��� in 2008 as an army of one, developing the company���s first investor relations department. She gradually evolved to handle corporate communications and public relations, and was an early adaptor of social media, recognizing the potential of outlets such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Her responsibilities at SHFL now include consistent and frequent communication and messaging of the company���s strategies, performance and vision to its key constituents: shareholders, potential investors, employees and the media. Boguslawski, who at the age of 30 was the youngest SHFL vice president at the time, was instrumental in creating SHFL���s separate interactive investor relations website, which is among a handful of companies that live tweets its earnings through StockTwits. The public company had 2012 revenue of $260 million, with about 800 employees. Headquartered locally, SHFL has a presence in the U.S., Austria, Australia and Asia. It recently established operations in Gibraltar, and plans to expand into the Latin American market. ���My job is to get our name out there and communicate why SHFL is uniquely positioned and why we have great opportunities for growth, because at the end of the day, that���s what investors really care about,��� said Boguslawski, who is also a dedicated mentor with Spread the Word Nevada���s Books & Buddies program. ���D.B. 4 0 U ND ER 4 0 2 01 3 Ryan Walsh, M.D. Age: 39 Director of the Parkinson���s Disease and Movement Disorders Program Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health 40 UNDER 40 2013 Justin Micatrotto Age: 33 Partner MRG Marketing & Management Inc (franchise partner of Raising Cane���s) C hicken fingers and a recession seem to go hand in hand for Justin Micatrotto. With a major economic downturn unknowingly before him in 2005, he and his business partners boldly set out to expand casual dining franchise, Raising Cane���s, in Nevada and Arizona. Today, they employ about 400 people with five Las Vegas and three Phoenix locations. Micatrotto said the timing for a casual din- 1A 20130304_VI01_I.indd 18 ing concept like Cane���s was good. But had the venture involved a higherpriced offering, he may not have fared so well. ���Raising Cane���s simplistic menu came in a time where people weren���t looking to pay 10 to 12 dollars for lunch but five or six,��� he said. ���And nobody was doing a chicken fingers only-based menu at the time. That lit a fire under us.��� Micatrotto describes Raising Cane���s as the In-N-Out Burger of chicken fingers. The concept was born out of Louisiana in the mid-���90s, near the LSU campus, where college students got their first taste of Cane���s unique fresh marinated chicken tenderloins. There are now more than 100 locations nationwide. The lucky restaurant owner is reminded of his good fortune every Wednesday, when he volunteers as a food server with Las Vegas Catholic Worker. His local franchises also donate 100 percent of profits from sales on four holidays during the year: Easter, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Fourth of July. To date, Raising Cane���s has donated more than $50,000 to local charities. ���Giving reminds me of the fact that I get to live a comfortable life and really energizes me through my days,��� he added. ���B.S. F or Dr. Ryan Walsh, business as usual doesn���t mean business as usual. ���Particularly in my field, in medicine, with all the changes going on right now in health care, the old way of doing things, where you put your head down, did your hard work, and things would go well isn���t quite the same,��� he notes. ���There are a lot of different things now that you have to address -- including the business environment, the insurance environment, and patients��� expectations and education on their disease, both of which are increased over time.��� In medicine today, Walsh emphasizes, and especially in his role, ���you have to try and engage all those different areas outside of traditional medicine as best you can. That has kind of been the motivating feature for me, and in particular with one subset of population of patients that I see, those with Huntington���s Disease.��� Indeed, those patients face challenges in all those areas, which explains why Walsh developed a Huntington���s Disease clinic here at the Lou Ruvo Center: to try to address all the different aspects of the disease. ���That���s a bit of a microcosm of the approach that I���ve taken to medicine overall.��� This sort of overall involvement is key to providing the best care possible, which is what Walsh and his colleagues are all about. ���It���s important to constantly reanalyze what you assume, because it changes so rapidly nowadays particularly in medicine. Basically, if you don���t have a voice in that process at the table, then you���re going to be on the menu.��� ���H.R. 2/28/13 3:02:34 PM