Virginia McDowell

Background

About Virginia McDowell

Named Gaming Executive of the Year for 2009 by Casino Journal Magazine, Virginia McDowell has always performed at the top of her game. Among the top publicly traded gaming corporations, she served as the only female president and chief executive officer of a major gaming operating company from 2007 until her retirement from Isle of Capri Casinos in April, 2016. She has served as an independent non-executive director of Entain PLC in London since 2018, where she serves on the Sustainability and Compliance Committee; serves as the Global Designated Workforce Director, and serves on the People and Governance and Remuneration Committees. She served as the Board Chair and President of Global Gaming Women, a non-profit she co-founded in 2016 with a mission to support, inspire and influence the development of women in the gaming industry through education and mentoring, and currently serves on the Advisory Board. She also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Saint Louis University from 2010 to 2025. and was a member of the Executive Committee, Athletics, Business and Administration, Diversity Equity and Inclusion and co-chaired the Advancement Committee. She is currently an appointed fellow at the Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) at Harvard University. Her achievements include combining nearly 40 years of casino experience with strong business skills and a demonstrated ability to communicate at every level, and she has served as a frequent featured or keynote speaker, moderator or panelist at universities, civic organizations and charitable organizations and major industry conferences. In 2022, she was the first woman inducted into the Mississippi Gaming Hall of Fame; was the first female to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the East Coast Gaming Conference, and was inducted into the American Gaming Association's Gaming Hall of Fame.