Spanish and Latin American gaming operator Codere has confirmed the ouster of its founder and the appointment of a new chairman and a new CEO.

On Friday, Grupo Codere’s board of directors issued a statement confirming the appointment of Norman Sorensen Valdez as its non-executive chairman and Vicente Di Loreto as CEO. The company justified the moves saying “new leadership is necessary in the company to drive profitable growth and maximize shareholder value.”

The formal announcement made no mention of the fact that Codere’s former chairman José Antonio Martínez Sampedro (pictured) and former VP Luis Javier Martínez Sampedro had their executive functions withdrawn. The two men, whose family founded Codere in 1980, will retain their seats on Codere’s board.

Rumors of the senior management shakeup preceded the formal announcement by a full week. The ousting of the Martínez Sampedro family was done at the behest of the private equity funds that bailed out Codere in 2013 after the company found itself more than one billion euros in debt.