N.C. Lottery joins Powerball, hires five executives

Tuesday, December 20, 2005 posted 10:18 AM EST

The North Carolina Lottery Commission voted unanimously Monday to join the multi-state Powerball game and announced five key hires to a staff that is likely to reach between 200 and 300 workers.

North Carolina will join 28 other statesas well as the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, on the Powerball lineup, and is expected to begin participation in the game by July. Powerball is known for big payouts such as the record $340 million recently won by nine people in Oregon.

In the lottery's executive suite, Lou Ann Russell was hired as the N.C. Lottery's deputy executive director of marketing and advertising. She most recently served as a senior vice president for Fitzgerald & Co., which handled the marketing account for the Georgia Lottery for 12 years, In her new job, Russell will earn $130,000 annually, plus potential benefits should the state game be up and running by the April 5, 2006, deadline.

Alice Garland, currently the assistant secretary of communications at the N.C. Department of Commerce, has been named the lottery's deputy executive director of legislative and corporate communication, a post in which she will earn an annual salary of $128,000.

Sam Hammett, formerly the vice president of sales for the Georgia Lottery, will take the position of deputy executive director of sales, earning an annual salary of $125,000.

James W. Knight, a certified public accountant who has served as the senior operations and planning manager for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, has been hired as the senior finance director at an annual wage of 92,000.

Margaret Spindola-Bode was hired as the director of human resources for the state game and will earn an annual salary of $92,000. Spindola-Bode comes to the N.C. lottery with more than 30 years of experience, including five years at the Georgia Lottery from 1996 through 2001.

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