Travellers International Hotel Group Inc, owner and operator of Manila casino complex Newport World Resorts, has named Laurence Hawke (pictured) as its new chief financial officer (CFO). He will take up his post in July.

Mr Hawke, who is said to have 30 years of experience in the integrated resort sector, was most recently group CFO of Hoiana Resort & Golf, a Vietnam complex with foreigner-only casino, in Da Nang, on that country’s central coast.

A Tuesday announcement from Travellers International said the appointee has “substantial exposure to pre-opening and operation of high-stakes, luxury Asian integrated resorts with both gaming and non-gaming components”.

Mr Hawke will report to the recently-appointed new president and chief executive of Travellers International, Nilo Rodriguez; and will also work “closely” with the firm’s “executive chairman Kevin Tan and chief operating officer [COO] Lance Gautreaux”.

Tuesday’s statement added: “For a significant portion of his professional career, Hawke has been responsible for corporate and operational finance including analysis, and strategic planning as well as financial controls and budget management.”

In mid-May, Travellers International – part of Philippine conglomerate Alliance Global Inc – reported that its first-quarter consolidated net profit attributable to the owners declined about 96 percent year-on-year to PHP8 million (US$136,485 currently), compared to PHP214 million in the prior-year quarter.

Travellers International had said in a June 3 statement that the firm’s former president and CEO Kingson Sian had “officially retired from the company” after being at the helm “since it started 16 years ago as the country’s first integrated resort developer”.

In that same update, Travellers International noted that those that had also left – with effect from June 1 – were Hakan Dagtas, the previous COO, and the former CFO, Bernard Than.

That announcement had mentioned they were “both part of Alliance Global’s former venture partner in the company”.