Zona de Azar USA – Top Caesars Exec (and Vegas’s 1st Female Mayor): Diversity, Inclusion Boost Bottom Line Results

USA.- May 27th 2019 www.zonadeazar.com Jan Jones Blackhurst is renowned today as the voice of diversity and inclusion at Caesars Entertainment, the international hospitality and gaming operation with 65,000 employees and annual revenues of $9 billion [NASDAQ: CZR]. But here in Blackhurst’s hometown of Las Vegas, she’s long been a face of entrepreneurship and progressive business, first as the spokesperson for her family’s car dealership, on whose behalf she was heard “incessantly,” as she put its it, in their advertising campaigns across the city’s television and radio waves.

Breaking the glass ceiling as Las Vegas’s first female mayor

Soon, she rose to even greater visibility when she managed to win election as the first female mayor of Las Vegas, a campaign she got herself into, she tells me, “on a dare.” By doing so, Blackhurst broke through the glass governance ceiling in what, at that time, was perhaps the most misogynistic city in America. Her election that first time shocked nearly everyone (“maybe most of all myself”), but after a successful first term, her re-election–with an overwhelming 72 percent of the vote–surprised far fewer.

Working for the “most disenfranchised populations in our city”

In her years as mayor, Blackhurst promoted and presided over the largest spurt of development the city had seen in decades. However, she says, “I never thought of commercial development as a sufficient achievement by itself,” unless it could be aligned with finding a place at the table for the most disenfranchised populations in her city.

These efforts included assistance to the homeless community, on whose behalf Blackhurst created a housing and outreach plan that has since been used as a model by cities across the U.S.. It also involved support for those who were then called “G&L [Gay and Lesbian] Citizens.” (“B, T, and Q were added later, each additional letter drawing more controversy than you can imagine, today, could ever have been warranted.”) Blackhurst was the first mayor to serve as Grand Marshal for the Gay Pride Parade and to walk in the AIDs Walk, in contrast to prior mayors, who had refused to participate out of fear of negative headlines in the local press. She was also the first mayor to address and work with the Lambda Business Association, the most important gay and lesbian business organization of its time.

Edited by: Zona de Azar Press www.zonadeazar.com