Bill McBeath, president and COO, Aria Resort

By Liz Benston

Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Bill McBeath is president and chief operating officer of CityCenter’s 4,000-room Aria resort, which opens in mid-December.

You graduated with a hotel management degree from UNLV in 1987. How did your degree prepare you?

It teaches you how to break down complex issues, figure out what’s important and how to make it better. Management theory is just that — theory. Real world dynamics change everything. I came in with a naive arrogance. I realized, in my first departmental review at the Golden Nugget, that there’s multiple ways to get from point A to point B.

Why did you take a job with Steve Wynn before he built Mirage and much of his reputation?

With Steve’s success in Atlantic City, he had a grand vision in Las Vegas — that was part of the pitch. With Wynn, your opportunities were limited only by your appetite to work and grow and your enthusiasm for the job. He doesn’t mind if you make a mistake as long as you’re moving forward.

Some people seem to be lucky and others have a harder road to success. Where are you on the spectrum?

The harder you sweat the luckier you get. Luck presents itself almost equally to everybody. The truly talented can recognize and exploit it and can contain the effects of bad luck. I’ve had wonderful opportunities and exploited them for my and the company’s benefit.

You became president of Treasure Island at 33. Describe your first day there.

I had built my career for the opportunity and believed I had the experience and skills. And yet, that first day, I realized that the buck stops here.

Is everyone working harder in this downturn?

With the wind at your back, it’s hard to differentiate yourself. The entrepreneurial operators will distinguish themselves in this market. You might make less money than you’ve ever made but you might make 20 percent more than the guy across the street.

A lot of people think CityCenter, with its condo and nongaming towers, could fail because it’s a departure from the typical casino resort.

Applying that logic, none of us would be here because the Mirage wouldn’t have been built and we would have continued to build smaller, casino-driven operations that didn’t expand the market and change guest expectations. Whether you’re a critic or not, it’s going to be good for Las Vegas because it will be an international must-see.