Fanatics appointed Michener (Mich) Chandlee as chief financial officer. Chandlee, who brings to Fanatics nearly 30 years of global finance experience – including the last 18 years with Nike – will oversee the business and financial planning, accounting, investor relations, purchasing, tax, treasury and divisional finance for the company.
Chandlee will be based in the company’s Silicon Valley west coast headquarters, reporting directly to Fanatics CEO Doug Mack. He will leverage decades-long financial expertise across vertical product, brand development, globalization, wholesale and strategic retail to drive profitable growth across all divisions in the company. Chandlee was most recently Vice President, Corporate Audit and Chief Risk Officer at Nike, where he led an independent consulting organization focused on the transformation of key business areas relating to traditional audit, strategic enterprise risk, fraud risk management and data and analytics.
“As Fanatics continues to rapidly scale into a leading global, vertical, customer-focused brand, Mich brings an ideal skill set and experience base to lead and scale our finance organization ahead,” said Mack. “He understands the economics of the sports apparel industry and the power of product, brand, technology and channel innovation – which are key as he guides our financial future. Mich has a reputation for being a high collaborative business partner, so we’re thrilled to welcome him to the team.”
Chandlee will build upon his extensive experience from Nike to help continue to extend Fanatics’ leadership in v-commerce – combining on-demand manufacturing with agile e-commerce and wholesale distribution to quickly deliver the broadest, most relevant assortment of high-quality products to fans worldwide. The timing of his appointment is opportune with the launch preparations of two unprecedented licensed merchandise initiatives for the company in 2020; it was previously announced that Fanatics would manufacture and distribute all Nike NFL and MLB fan gear sold across all retail channels starting next year.
In addition to his most current role, over the past 18 years Chandlee has held a variety of CFO positions across several key Nike divisions. These include positions as Nike’s North America CFO, CFO of Nike Golf, CFO of Nike’s Global Marketplaces and CFO of Nike’s Emerging Markets division. Prior to Nike, he spent several years in finance with General Motors – and in his career has worked and lived outside the U.S. for 12 years across four countries.
“I am excited to fuse together my passion for sports, vertical product and technology by joining the talented and passionate team at Fanatics, which has created one of the most innovative consumer companies and brands worldwide,” said Chandlee. “They’ve unlocked endless opportunities to reinvent the licensed sports industry and fan experience for the on-demand economy – and I am thrilled to be a part of the journey ahead.”
Chandlee, who earned an MBA from IESE International Graduate School of Management in Barcelona and a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from Roanoke College, currently lives in Oregon with his wife and seven children. An avid sports fan, he counts the Philadelphia Eagles and 76ers amongst his favorite teams.
Photo courtesy Fanatics
