Fanatics named Krishna Rao as chief financial officer of Fanatics Commerce, its retail operation. In his role, Krishna will oversee all finance functions and strategic planning of its Commerce business, reporting to Fanatics Commerce CEO and Fanatics Vice Chairman, Doug Mack.
“I am thrilled to welcome Krishna to our Fanatics Commerce leadership team as we continue to scale our business globally and further integrate across the entire Fanatics platform,” said Mack. “Over the course of his career, Krishna has served as strategic financial leader and investor for world-class brands and has a strong mindset for profitable growth and value creation. His strategic approach and financial expertise will have an immediate impact on our company and our unrelenting mission to continually enhance the fan and partner experience worldwide.”
Krishna joins Fanatics from Cedar, a healthcare payments and patient engagement platform, where was the company’s CFO, leading finance functions and operations. Previously, he was Global Head of Corporate & Business Development and led corporate and operations FP&A for Airbnb, where his work ranged from “helping to navigate financially through the pandemic to playing a leading role in raising over $10 billion of equity and debt capital, including Airbnb’s IPO and private financings.” Krishna also previously served as a private equity investor at Blackstone and as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company.
“I have long admired the transformative business that Fanatics has built over more than a decade. The opportunity to partner with Doug and the incredibly talented global Commerce team as they continue to revolutionize the licensed sports industry is truly exciting,” said Rao. “I am energized to join such an innovative company and broader digital sports platform that is hyper-focused on creating memorable experiences for sports fans around the world.”
Photo courtesy Fanatics
