12 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 PGRI Announces Lottery Industry Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients Honoring the 2023 recipients for their distinguished careers and a Lifetime of Dedication which has Contributed to the Great Success of Government Lotteries Join us at 4:30 pm on Tuesday September 12 at PGRI Lottery Expo Nashville to celebrate the Lottery Industry Lifetime Achievement award ceremony honoring Ms. Carney and Ms. King. Honoring the 2023 recipients for their distinguished careers and a Lifetime of Dedication which has Contributed to the Great Success of Government Lotteries Created in 1993 to honor Major Peter J. O’Connell, the first director of the Rhode Island Lottery, the Lottery Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes industry leaders who have, over a long tenure of service, made important contributions to the success of their peers and to the lottery industry, as well as to the lotteries that they serve. The recipients are nominated and selected by current Lifetime Achievement Award holders and join an elite group of industry leaders. Major O’Connell was a pioneer in the lottery field and the evolution of instant ticket and on-line systems. After years of promoting the concept of a multi-state lottery, Major O’Connell served a two-year term as the first President of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), where in 1988 he was instrumental in launching Lotto*America, the predecessor of today’s Powerball. In 1993, the Public Gaming Research Institute honored Major O’Connell with the Major Peter O’Connell Lottery Career Achievement Award presented for “the principles of high integrity, commitment to the quality of the lottery, dedication to the lottery playing public, professional independence and service to the state, along with tenure in office, as exemplified by Major O’Connell.” After serving in the United States Marine Corps during WWII, Peter joined the Rhode Island State Police, where he served with distinction for 25 years. During his tenure he held several top-level positions as he rose to the rank of Major. As chairman of the New England Police Intelligence Unit, he designed and implemented the New England Police Management School for State Police, which became known nationally. Major O’Connell was inducted into the Rhode Island Criminal Justice Hall of Fame in 2014. In May of 1974, Major O’Connell was appointed by the governor to be the first Executive Director of the Rhode Island Lottery where he served until his retirement in 1993, making him the longest tenured Lottery Director in the Unites States at the time, and continues to be the longest serving tenure at one lottery. Major O’Connell passed away in 2021, just weeks shy of his 100th birthday. n MICHELLE CARNEY Vice President, Global Lottery Marketing, IGT Michelle Carney has dedicated much of her 23-year career at IGT to working collaboratively with lotteries, industry associations, and peers to help drive the lottery industry forward. For the past 15 years, she has engaged with state lotteries and their vendor partners to evolve the Powerball and Mega Millions multi-jurisdictional game portfolio in the U.S., and most recently was honored to be asked to lead the 2025 Mega Millions project-plan implementation. In 2007, she was immersed in developing the consumer questions and framework to inform a national approach to the evolution of multi-state games. Since then, Michelle has collaborated with the MUSL and Mega Millions working groups to implement six multijurisdictional game enhancements, including Cross-Sell, $2 Powerball and $2 Mega Millions — changes that have contributed substantial revenue for good causes. Another aspect of multi-jurisdiction game evolution was Michelle’s role leading the Cash 4 Life project implementation, originally launched in NY and NJ in 2014. From 2015 to 2017, as IGT’s Vice President of Strategic Customer Initiatives and Customer Advocate, she worked closely with CEOs and directors of all U.S. governmentsponsored lotteries to develop, manage, and execute national opportunities to grow their lottery business. What was most important to her when she first started in the industry was to earn the trust of customers: “I believe wholeheartedly in the mission of government-sponsored lotteries to benefit the good causes and people in the jurisdictions they serve. I wanted our lottery customers to know, and still do, that I am committed to listening to their needs and helping them responsibly grow sales to serve those beneficiaries.” JEANNA KING Vice President, Creative Engagement & Events, Scientific Games Jeanna King’s design career spans more than two decades at Scientific Games and a lifetime of dedication which has contributed to the great success of government lotteries. Today, she is the company’s Vice President of Creative Engagement and Events. Jeanna joined Scientific Games 22 years ago as a graphic designer. Since then, she’s become a leader of the company’s creative and marketing efforts supporting its global mission to help lotteries generate maximum funding for their good causes. Jeanna’s creative talents and design vision allowed her to spearhead high-visibility creative projects, including developing Scientific Games’ strong corporate brand identity and helping the company pioneer linked games and oncein-a-lifetime winners’ events. In her current role, Jeanna leads creative development and marketing campaigns with an internal team as well as external agencies that create engaging consumerlevel materials for the company’s lottery customers. She has provided branding expertise to more than 100 lottery marketing programs in the form of radio and television ad campaigns and point-of-sale materials, including many featuring popular licensed entertainment brands. Jeanna also leads Scientific Games’ visual presence and renowned hospitality at lottery industry conferences and trade shows around the world. Jeanna holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Visual Communications from Auburn University in Alabama. She is a die-hard Auburn Football fan and a longtime participant in the Disney Princess Run and Half Marathon. She has dedicated her free time to generating awareness and funding for Rett Syndrome. Jeanna lives with her husband and daughters, Caroline and Aeryn, in metro Atlanta. n Continued on page 20
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