James Packer rejoins Crown Resorts as director

Crown Resorts has named James Packer to be its new director as the casino mogul comes back after resigning in the same position in 2015. He owned 48 percent of the company through Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH), which leads the company to nominate him to return to the position.

Current Crown chairman Robert Rankin will step down on Feb. 1 as CPH's chairman and chief executive. However, he will remain as Melco Crown Entertainment director. Before Packer left the company in 2015, he said that he trusted and respected Rankin as an executive. He added that he believed Rankin would do an outstanding job as a chairman.

John Alexander will be the executive chairman, a promotion from his previous post as an executive deputy chairman. He is a long-time confidante for Packer and has cleaned up the magazine business of Packer's father. He has also helped the casino mogul to get a $5.6 billion price tag from private equity buyers for ACP and the Nine television network. The asset has helped Packer to expand his business in the gaming sector. He has been a target of many critics including Gerald Stone who wrote "Who Killed Channel Nine," which contained Alexander's cost-cutting Nine prior to the private equity sale.

Packer said that realignment of corporate priorities was coupled with Rankin's own professional and personal priorities based overseas. Rankin said that he valued Packer as a friend and respected him as a businessman. He said that James has a very strong team to develop the next stages of Crown and CPH, which will be more focused on their Australian assets.

Meanwhile, Guy Jalland is the new chief executive officer of CPH. He was tagged as one of the smartest people in Australian business. He has been a long-time legal adviser of Packer. He has also played the key role in Crown's stake recent selldown in Melco Crown.