Esports org Fnatic, whose HQ is located in London, has today announced the appointment of four new members of staff to its senior leadership team, including experienced sports executives.
Craig Edmondson has been appointed Fnatic’s new chief commercial officer (CC), following a recent stint at tech unicorn Zwift, and a 14-year career leading commercial strategy and sales, digital transformation and global brand development for the football Premier League.
Secondly, Nicola Packer has joined as general counsel to oversee legal and risk advisory globally across the Fnatic business. With experience in businesses across technology (including Dyson), live entertainment and sport, Nicola also brings operational and strategic leadership following her tenure at Extreme as its COO.
The legal team has been further strengthened by the hire of Laura Ashworth-Cape, who joins Fnatic as head of legal after four years as legal counsel at Premier League football club Arsenal FC.
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Fnatic has also hired Joshua Brill as its new head of marketing. Brill brings experience from the youth culture and entertainment industry, having previously held the position of head of creative & commercials at Viacom CBS, which included leading the marketing strategies across MTV, Comedy Central and more.
Craig Edmondson, CCO at Fnatic, said: “Fnatic is one of the most forward-thinking brands in gaming and I’m thrilled to be joining the organisation at a very exciting time to help take the team’s business offerings to new heights. There is huge room for growth within the industry and Fnatic is primed to take advantage of some of the emerging opportunities and markets within the digital space.”
The new hires join as Fnatic looks to expand its ‘Web3’ business strategy and build on the success of recent partnerships with brands such as ASOS, BMW, Crypto.com and L’Oréal. Web3 is what’s described as the next iteration of the internet based on blockchain tech.
“Fnatic has just experienced one of its biggest years of digital growth to date and we want to ensure we continue building on our recent success. Each of our four new hires brings a vast amount of experience with them.”
Sam Mathews, Fnatic
Fnatic says the news comes ‘as the organisation looks to focus on innovative digital products for the gaming and esports community following a 400% year-on-year increase in digital growth, with Joshua Brill looking to build on Fnatic’s 35m+ social followers’.
Sam Mathews, CEO at Fnatic, said: “Fnatic has just experienced one of its biggest years of digital growth to date and we want to ensure we continue building on our recent success.
“Each of our four new hires brings a vast amount of experience with them that will provide our team with the expertise to level up our offering, helping us navigate some of the most innovative and engaging initiatives we’ve ever undertaken.”
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
