The co-founder and operating partner of chef Daniel Boulud’s The Dinex Group has been appointed to the board of real estate investment trust Gaming and Leisure Properties.
The company announced Friday that Carol “Lili” Lynton would join the company’s board as an independent director, fulfilling the Wyomissing, Pennsylvania- based REIT’s publicly stated goal to diversify the board’s composition relative to gender, race, ethnicity and age diversity. Lynton’s appointment gives the GLPI board seven directors, six of whom are independent members.
Lynton brings more than 35 years of finance, consumer and real estate experience to the GLPI board.
The company, the gaming industry’s first REIT, was created by Penn National Gaming in 2013 and now has 46 gaming properties in 16 states that are leased to Penn, Eldorado Resorts and Boyd Gaming Corp.
In addition to co-founding Dinex, which operates 17 Boulud-branded restaurants, Lynton co-founded Telebank, an internet banking pioneer which was acquired by E*Trade in 1999. She was previously an investment analyst at financial services company Sanford C. Bernstein and a mergers and acquisition analyst at Lehman Brothers.
“Lili brings valuable perspectives to our board, driven by her extensive experience in the finance, real estate and consumer sectors and public company board background,” GLPI Chairman and CEO Peter Carlino said in a statement. “The company believes that board diversity is critical to thoroughly assess risk, anticipate challenges and scrutinize the complex, dynamic issues that affect or may affect GLPI and its shareholders and we look forward to benefiting from Lili’s deep range of experience and perspectives.”
Lynton a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, is currently a director of El Pollo Loco Holdings and serves as a trustee of CIM RACR, an SEC registered interval fund.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
