Frank J. Fertitta III joins USC board
Frank J. Fertitta III ’84, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas-based Station Casinos and Fertitta Entertainment, a resort and casino development and management company, was elected to the USC Board of Trustees on April 7.
One of the largest gaming companies in the United States and the leading provider of gaming and entertainment to residents of Southern Nevada, Station Casinos has grown under Fertitta’s leadership from one property with approximately 1,200 employees to 17 properties with nearly 12,000 employees. It is the only gaming company to have been named by Fortune magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.”
Fertitta is also a founder and principal owner of Zuffa LLC, which owns and operates the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Since purchasing the UFC in 2001, Fertitta and his brother, Lorenzo, have transformed the organization into a global sports enterprise that is now the largest live pay-per-view content provider in the world. In 2012, the UFC entered into a landmark seven-year broadcast agreement with Fox Sports Media Group. Beyond Fox, UFC programming is broadcast to nearly one billion homes in more than 149 countries and territories, in 20 different languages.
“Frank Fertitta is an accomplished businessman who is keenly aware of the need for educational institutions to transcend the traditional in order to train tomorrow’s leaders in the evolving marketplace,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias. “I look forward to his contributions as a member of our Board of Trustees as we strive to instill in our students the critical and entrepreneurial thinking that will enable them to thrive in our globally interconnected world.”
Fertitta and his wife, Jill, are lifelong residents of Las Vegas, where they have extended their philanthropic support to a broad range of organizations, many of which are committed to providing or enhancing education. Those organizations include the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, The Meadows School, the Clark County School District, the Las Vegas chapter of the I Have a Dream Foundation and Bishop Gorman High School. The Fertittas have also supported the Nevada Cancer Institute, Catholic Charities of Las Vegas, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and The Smith Center for the Performing Arts.
In the fall, the Fertittas made a leadership gift to USC to create an undergraduate instructional building and endow a faculty chair at the USC Marshall School of Business. Jill and Frank Fertitta Hall will enrich the educational environment at USC Marshall by providing classrooms, a library, open meeting areas and improved student-services facilities that will foster more collaborative and technology-enabled learning experiences for undergraduates. Construction is expected to begin in May 2014, with completion slated for the fall 2016 semester.
The Fertittas’ gift also established the USC Jill and Frank Fertitta Endowed Chair in Business, supporting USC Marshall’s ongoing priority of recruiting and retaining leading academicians, policymakers and practitioners to share their insights, experiences and connections with business students at USC.
A graduate of USC Marshall, Frank Fertitta is also a Trojan parent. He and his wife have three children, one of whom, Kelley-Ann, is a 2012 graduate of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.