2004 GREAT WOMEN OF GAMING
Proven leader

Tracy Austin

Chief Information Officer
Mandalay Resort Group

 

Even as a child, Tracy Austin was always finding herself someplace new. "My father was career Air Force," says Austin. "As a result, we moved a bit, primarily (among) small towns in the West. I went to three different high schools in four years. I think this alone gave me a good background in learning to adapt, being approachable and being able to jump in and get involved quickly." She has a quick response about any crossroads she might have faced between resourcefulness and rootlessness. "We had a family rule," she says. "My mother always said, 'we will move, but we will enjoy ourselves—and we will always make new friends.'"

That resourcefulness makes Austin a tremendous asset in today's gaming industry. "Working in IT requires that you keep up with technology," she says. "Keeping up with technology exposes you to other industries and what they are doing—not only with technology, but with basic business processes such as HR, procurement, etc. You can benefit from these approaches and bring them into gaming, and hire new people into this industry. This can help jump-start initiatives and innovations." For example, Austin says that talking to HR professionals from other tech-related industries led her to question traditional hiring practices in gaming. "You are going to be competing with IBM, or Teradata, or Microsoft," she says. "So you might have to change how you market the positions you have, make your offers a little different and a little more creative." Austin also involves herself in non-gaming conferences or activities as a speaker, panelist, and board member. She was once a strong board member for Classrooms on Wheels, a nonprofit that brings kindergarten education to at-risk neighborhoods in Las Vegas, and recently spoke at an MBA class at UNLV. "I did these things to expand my mind," she says.

Austin's career path was based on a desire to influence change, a passion for how technology can change a business for the better, and a sense that those values or goals would match up with gaming industry needs. And if there's one thing that she stresses, Austin says, it's that "I worked hard." Austin began her professional career in marketing at IBM, a position that "opened up my eyes to how technology and systems could dramatically change a business," she says. "This grabbed my attention and my heart." Then opportunity knocked. Austin moved to what was then a relatively small company called Harrah's, where she would stay for seventeen years (she has been at Mandalay since March 2003). "I moved into gaming from IBM because I saw a small company and a small industry where I believed I could make a difference and be 'counted'," she says. "At that point, there were only three or four properties. At IBM, you're one of multiple thousands. And I wanted an opportunity to do something that somebody might notice or would count." She remembers that people around her questioned the move at the time; she also remembers following an inner voice. "I've been lucky," says Austin. "I think I was able to be follow my gut, my intuition, and make something happen with it. When I look back on my career there have been plenty of 'first time' positions I've been able to take advantage of (and in some cases I created and proposed these positions). So there was lots of opportunity."

That opportunity grows with gaming itself, in the diversity of skills available and in the number of people interested in working in the industry. Specifically, Austin cites skills in implementing change across large, multi-property companies, strong communication skills both internally and externally to non-gaming financial, business and technical analysts, and experience in leading large geographically-dispersed teams. "I see the changes in the gaming industry as creating strong career opportunities for not only women, but others," Austin says.

Teamwork is very crucial for Austin. "It's really all about the folks that are around you," she says. "There's not one thing I'd take credit for myself. I have been fortunate to work with great teams of people in terms of the direct reports I've had, and my peers," she says. "I think it is key to recognize you get more done with a team approach—no one person stands alone. That is so critical to me. I think that women tend to do well because by nature, they tend to be more team-based, more collaborative. And there's a lot of change going on. I've done about seven mergers, and you have to take a team approach or it's not going to work."

Still, Austin tends to be non-philosophical about being a woman in a male-dominated field. "Consistency in integrity and results are not gender-biased," she says. "Usually it's been a matter of finding the right communication approach and then delivering on results. I don't know that it is that much different from any other industry. There are relationships that have been established for a long, long time, and it can be hard for new people—male or female— to break into that. But do I worry that people think that women aren't capable? I don't worry about that."


Copyright 2011, Great Women of Gaming. All rights reserved.