Robert Heller

Robert Heller is co-founder and CEO of Spectrum Gaming Capital. Mr. Heller has over 30 years experience in investment banking and resort development. Heller has initiated and completed over $50 billion in debt and equity financing and raised the acquisition financing for Baha Mar Resorts as the company’s founding President and CFO.

He joined Spectrum from UBS Investment Bank where he was responsible for coordinating the bank’s gaming franchise globally. Previously, he was president of Heller Gaming & Leisure, a boutique investment banking and advisory firm specializing in casinos, hotels and resorts, operating since 2003. Prior to that, Heller spent 23 years in investment banking, having established and managed teams as a Managing Director of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, and at Salomon Brothers.

Notable past transactions include the merger of Penn National and Hollywood Casino Corp., the sale of Caesars World Resorts, construction financing for the Borgata, the initial public offering for Vail Resorts, development financings for Mohegan Sun and Isle of Capri, the sales of Breckenridge and Steamboat ski resorts, the first commercial paper offering for Foxwoods, and the first public project financing for a riverboat casino (Hollywood Casino in Aurora, IL). In his boutique, Heller performed restructuring advisory work for institutional investor clients including Harbinger Capital and the Committee of Independent Lenders to Station Casinos.

Heller was founding President and CFO of Baha Mar Resorts, Ltd., owner and developer of a $3.5 billion 2,000 room, four-hotel, golf resort complex with a 100,000 sq ft casino. Heller coordinated the Baha Mar project at its onset including land assemblage, hotel acquisitions, operations, pre-development, joint ventures, and raised almost $500 million in initial financings for the project.

Heller is a graduate of the City University of New York and began his career as a CPA with Price Waterhouse & Company. He is a frequent speaker at global industry events and has made presentations at gaming industry conferences throughout North America and in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Heller is a former board member of the American Gaming Association, and has lectured at the NYU Real Estate Institute and at the Cornell Hotel School.