Background and career
Elaine Farrell Wynn (née Pascal; April 28, 1942 – April 14, 2025) was an American billionaire businesswoman, art collector, philanthropist and education reformer. She co-founded Mirage Resorts and Wynn Resorts with her former husband, Steve Wynn. Wynn was on the Nevada State Board of Education from 2012 until 2020 and was the board's president in 2015 and 2017. She was on the national board of Communities in Schools from 1999 until her death in 2025.
Wynn was born to a middle-class Jewish family on April 28, 1942, in New York City. Her father was a salesman for resort hotel packages and her mother was a homemaker. She spent part of her early life in Miami Beach, Florida. She attended George Washington University and majored in political science. While in college, she went on a blind date with Steve Wynn, who had just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. At the end of her junior year, the couple got married. She graduated from George Washington University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1964.
Wynn co-founded the Mirage Resorts with her former husband in 1976. They also co-founded Wynn Resorts in 2000. She was on its board of directors. She played a pivotal role in the resurgence and expansion of the Las Vegas Strip with her former husband. In 2015, she nominated herself to the board, but she was not confirmed. Wynn was the company's largest shareholder, with a 9% stake valued in May 2018 at nearly $2 billion. In 2018, after revelations of Steve Wynn's reported sexual harassment of multiple Wynn employees, and payments to cover up those allegations that were kept secret from the board of directors, he sold his 12% share of the company and agreed to return voting rights to Elaine Wynn (which she had signed away during their 2010 divorce agreement). In June 2018, Wynn successfully led a shareholder proxy campaign to remove John Hagenbuch from the board, due to his conflict of interest created by ties to the company's former CEO. At the time of her death in April 2025, Wynn still owned nearly 9% of stock at Wynn Resorts. However, as a result of recent purchases, most of the stock at Wynn Resorts was now owned by Houston-based investor Tilman Fertitta.
She was on the board of trustees of the Elaine P. Wynn & Family Foundation, which focuses on education and community development initiatives. From 1983 to 2008, she was involved with the UNLV Foundation, and its chair from 1985 to 1991, which conducts fundraising for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She also was on the executive board of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. Wynn co-founded the Nevada affiliate of Communities In Schools (CIS) in 1993 to provide integrated student support services to at-risk youth. She joined the national board in 1999 and was chair from 2007 to 2024.
In 2011, she co-chaired the state government initiative, the Nevada Blue Ribbon Education Reform Task Force, which produced a report titled Nevada’s Promise. The report recommended various improvements to the state's public education system, among them:
Establish a "Teachers and Leaders Council" to develop a fair and transparent evaluation system based on student growth and professional practice. Utilize real-time data to inform instruction and policy decisions to tailor instruction to meet students’ needs. Integrate support services within schools to address issues such as health, nutrition, and family support, enabling educators to focus on teaching. Create an accountability system that measures student progress and school performance. It stressed the need for transparent reporting. Revise the funding formula to more equitably distribute funds across schools and districts. Wynn was appointed to the Nevada State Board of Education by Governor Brian Sandoval. During her tenure on the board, she was elected as its president and oversaw and helped approve the hiring of three Nevada Superintendents of Public Instruction.
