We’re excited to announce changes to manage company growth and new business development initiatives.
Current President and Company Founder David Michaud steps down as President, assuming a client support and operations role. Michaud founded Smartplay in 1993 growing the company to 35 employees and working with over 200 lottery organizations in 85 countries.
Executive Vice President Tom Markert will assume the role of President as of May 1. Tom, also a founding partner, was the first employee of Smartplay in April of 1993. He entered the lottery industry in 1988 as an engineer at Beitel Lottery Products. Over the years, Tom’s role has expanded from overseeing manufacturing to sales and client services.
New to Smartplay is Darrell Smith who assumes the role of Vice President, Sales and Marketing — focusing on expanding the company’s digital product line globally as well as spearheading expansion into the gaming space. Darrell served the gaming industry for the last 13 years — eight years as Creative Director at SCA Gaming and then as principal of Game Creative — a game development and marketing company.
Lottery veteran, Sales and Marketing Associate, Mariana Mokritski will remain focused on servicing existing clients with current and future projects.
“These changes will give us the foundation to manage our future growth and innovation. We’ve had great success with our new digital systems and are focused on sharing this story globally,” said Tom Markert. “Darrell brings the experience in marketing, digital development and gaming to assist in our growth as we see the gaming and lottery industries continue to converge.”
Markert notes that the company is experiencing no slowdown in the manufacturing of traditional lottery systems. “What we’re seeing is an increased interest in the security that traditional mechanical machines provide. Our growth is coming from innovative lottery organizations that are combining digital and mechanical systems.”
