AGEM has selected Sebastian Salat as the recipient of the 2021 Jens Halle Memorial Award honoring Excellence in Commercial Gaming Professionalism, and Alan Feldman as the recipient of the 2021 Peter Mead Memorial Award Honoring Excellence in Gaming Media & Communications.
AGEM previously announced the creation of this unique annual awards program to acknowledge the lasting impacts on gaming by Halle and Mead, two distinctive industry veterans who died unexpectedly in 2015.
Honorees are announced each year at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas, and this year’s awards ceremony for Salat and Feldman will take place on Wednesday Oct. 6 at 4 p.m. at AGEM booth No. 3700 near the main entrance to G2E at The Venetian Expo.
Born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1958, Salat, 63, regarded as one of the most successful electronic gaming machine salesmen in industry history, has more than 35 years of experience in gaming, beginning in 1985 at Unidesa Gaming, the flagship company of the Spanish CIRSA Group, where he spent 15 years, the last 12 as Managing Director.
He joined WMS Gaming in 2000 as Managing Director – International and was ultimately promoted to WMS President – International, boosting WMS’ global prominence and serving in that role until 2015, after which he joined Zitro as Chief Executive Officer, with a focus on the worldwide video bingo and video slot markets.
Salat holds an Engineer in Electronics degree from Polytechnic University of Catalonia and separate Master’s degrees in International Trading, Marketing and Business.
“Sebastian Salat has been traveling the world selling gaming machines for decades and was one of the few who could give Jens Halle serious competition over the years for international customer engagement and the placement of machines in casinos throughout world,” said AGEM President David Lucchese, who also serves as Executive Vice President, Sales, Marketing & Digital at Everi.
“We have always let the nominating criteria guide the selection of these AGEM Memorial Awards and I can’t think of a more deserving winner whose European base, global reach and overall career path mirrored those of Jens. They were fierce competitors back in the day, but their mutual respect was evident then and lives on today,” Lucchese added.
Born in Los Angeles in 1959, Feldman, 62, has been a leading voice and informed advocate for the gaming industry dating back to 1989, when The Mirage opened in Las Vegas and changed the dynamics of the world-famous Strip forever. His commitment to responsible gaming is well known and he currently serves as Chairman of the International Center for Responsible Gaming and as Distinguished Fellow in Responsible Gaming for the UNLV International Gaming Institute.
Halle, a longtime Bally and Novomatic executive in Europe who was most recently CEO of Gauselmann Group’s Merkur Gaming based in Florida, died suddenly on May 20, 2015, at the age of 57. Mead, the founder and publisher of Casino Enterprise Management magazine, died suddenly in Las Vegas on June 24, 2015, at the age of 54.
Source: GMB
