Camelot North America Announces New Board Chair, Ertharin Cousin

Experienced global leader to drive essential lottery funding for education
Ertharin Cousin
Ertharin Cousin

Camelot North America Announces New Board Chair, Ertharin Cousin

Experienced global leader to drive essential lottery funding for education

Camelot North America is pleased to announce it has appointed Ertharin Cousin as its new non-executive board chair.

Camelot North America is the private manager of the Illinois Lottery, under its subsidiary Camelot Illinois, and a commercial partner for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, with operations in Chicago and Little Rock.

Ertharin Cousin has more than 30 years of experience as a global leader in corporate and nonprofit organizations, with a focus on changing the lives of people who have been marginalized. This includes serving as the U.S. ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and as executive director of the UN World Food Programme.

Cousin has strong Chicago roots –– she grew up in the Lawndale neighborhood, attended Lane Tech High School and the University of Illinois at Chicago and worked for the Illinois Attorney General’s office. She remembers when the Illinois Lottery was introduced in 1985 to generate essential funding for K-12 education across Illinois.

“Education in 2020 looks very different from last year, let alone from when the lottery first started. Whether in person or through remote learning, our teachers and students need adequate resources, tools and financial support,” said Cousin.

“Now more than ever, Illinois Lottery players have an essential role to play in generating essential funding for the Common School Fund to support education in the new normal,” she added.

“Well-directed public-private partnerships (PPPs) are essential to addressing America’s thorniest issues, including social justice and education for all. As the private manager of the Illinois Lottery, in partnership with state lottery officials, Camelot’s sole focus is to protect and build this valuable state asset ensuring adequate funding for K-12 students today and for generations to come,” said Cousin.

Cousin is also Stanford University’s Visiting Scholar at the Center on Food Security and the Environment, a distinguished fellow of global agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and founder and CEO of Food Systems for the Future.

Wayne Pickup, Camelot North America CEO, welcomed Cousin. “Ertharin brings a wealth of knowledge as a leader and as a member of the Chicagoland community. Her insight and leadership will be invaluable as we continue to grow the Illinois Lottery for the benefit of the people of Illinois.”

Camelot North America has managed the Illinois Lottery since late 2017 and during that time has launched a new website, mobile app and iLottery platform, introduced more gameplay online and tripled iLottery sales. Last year, Camelot also introduced new retail terminals, vending machines, signage and ticket dispensers to transform the Lottery’s presence in more than 7,000 retail locations. This was one of the biggest retail and technology transformations undertaken by any lottery in the U.S.

As business partner to the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery since 2015, Camelot has supported the lottery to grow its net income by almost 25% and achieve record annual sales in 2020.

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