For Malta Gaming Authority (MGA)’s outgoing General Counsel, Yanica Sant, who is departing the position after seven and a half years, this is a “bittersweet” period.

She first joined the regulator in 2014 as an intern, rising up the ranks swiftly, before reaching the prestigious position in February of this year.

In comments to WhosWho.mt, she discusses her decision to move on, reflects on her time at the organisation, and discusses the key characteristic she would credit with her impressive professional success.

Dr Sant says she is leaving the MGA not only with “very fond memories” with her “brilliant” colleagues, but also with the tools she needs to learn and grow professionally.

For the MGA’s role in giving her the opportunity to pick up these skills, and all the doors the organisation has opened for her, she says: “I am forever indebted to the organisation.”

Discussing her next role, she explains she will be taking up a “senior management role within the private sector.”

Having worked for her entire professional life at the regulator, she posits she felt it would be the logical next step in her career, and as such, she looks forward to this new challenge.

Asked what characteristic she credits to her success; she points to her “insatiable appetite for learning” and says she hoped this remains. “I genuinely believe that this is what pushes me forward.”

Along with this, Dr Sant expresses gratitude towards her family, friends and colleagues, saying she was “blessed” to have received their support.  

She will remain in office in the position until February 2022, continuing to fulfil functions that the MGA’s management consider to not give rise to conflict of interests, meaning she is not expected to perform any regulatory, inspectorate, or enforcement duties. Additionally, with immediate effect, she no longer forms part of any internal committees. 

While announcing her departure, the MGA thanked Dr Sant for her “sterling work” over the last seven and a half years, as well as her “invaluable contributions at all levels of the authority’s hierarchy and to most high-level projects over that time.”

Particularly notably, this included the drafting of the MGA’s regulatory framework which was published in 2018.