James Murren

James J. Murren, also known as Jim Murren, is Chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International, headquartered in Paradise, Nevada.

Jim Murren attended Roger Ludlowe High School in Fairfield, Conn., where he played football and baseball and was a member of the National Honor Society. Murren received his undergraduate degree at Trinity College, where he studied art history and urban studies and attended Caesari Barbieri Center in Rome, Italy. He joined the Wall Street firm of Cyrus J. Lawrence as a securities analyst, and earned the Chartered Financial Analyst certification in 1991. He was elected a member of the firm's Board of Directors, becoming the youngest member ever of the company's board. During his career on Wall Street he brought about a pivotal recapitalization of MGM Grand, Inc. in 1996, and served as a Managing Director and the Director of U.S. equity research for Deutsche Bank.

In 1998, he moved to the corporate sector, joining MGM as CFO and member of its Board of Directors. In 1999, he became President, and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2007; he became Chairman and CEO in December 2008, his 10th year at the company. Under his tenure, the company embarked upon an extremely successful decade of growth. Murren was the architect of $15 billion of acquisitions including Primadonna Resort & Casino in 1998, Mirage Resorts in 2000, and Mandalay Resort Group in 2005—acquisitions that helped transform MGM into the world's largest gaming company. He was repeatedly honored as the gaming and lodging industry’s top CFO by Institutional Investor magazine.

In 2008-09, Murren led an extensive reorganization of the company, resulting in over $500 million of annual savings; this, together with a $3.8 billion financing effort, kept the company from failure during the early days of the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009.

During Murren's tenure, MGM joined with Dubai World in the development of the Las Vegas Strip's CityCenter. When CityCenter opened in December 2009, it represented the largest single private development and the largest green project ever undertaken in the nation’s history and America’s number one generator of new jobs during the Great Recession. Senator Harry Reid said, "The Las Vegas community may never be able to express its appreciation adequately for all that Jim has done, but his hard work hasn't gone unnoticed. ... He is a leader of his generation in job creation, green investment and philanthropy." Somer Hollingsworth, President and CEO of the Nevada Development Authority, called CityCenter "the most exciting and impactful project to open for the foreseeable future.” Under Murren’s leadership, MGM broke ground on May 1, 2014, on another major project in Las Vegas: a privately financed, state-of-the-art, 20,000-seat arena that it is developing with sports and entertainment company AEG.

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