Fanatics, Inc. hired Chris Orton as chief marketing and revenue officer. Reporting directly to CEO Doug Mack, Orton will be responsible for the strategy and execution of Fanatics’ marketing efforts across the company’s own sites and its network of e-stores, which includes all the major North American professional sports leagues and hundreds of collegiate and professional teams.
Orton will be joining Fanatics from Orbitz Worldwide, the leading global online travel company, where he is COO and president of Orbitz.com. He joined the company in 2010 as CMO and the following year was named president of Orbitz.com and CheapTickets, the company’s online travel agency brands in the U.S.
“Chris is one of the best analytical marketers in the industry and we’re excited to welcome such a great leader to Fanatics,” said Mack. “Recruiting a world-class CMO was one of my top priorities after joining Fanatics and Chris’ deep experience building some of the biggest Internet brands in the world will help drive significant growth for all the sites we operate.”
A 20-year marketing and brand-building veteran, Orton played a significant role in a number of Orbitz’s key initiatives, including advanced analytics, CRM, branding, customer engagement and the rollout of the company’s highly rated consumer loyalty programs. Prior to joining Orbitz, he served as the head of Internet Marketing at eBay, Inc., where he was responsible for a budget in the hundreds of millions of dollars that included paid search, SEO and all affiliates and display marketing channels. Orton joined eBay after eight years of CRM and ERP consulting at Kana Software, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Andersen Consulting (Accenture).
“I couldn’t be more excited about joining the tremendously talented marketing and leadership teams at Fanatics,” said Orton. “Anyone who knows me knows how big a sports fan I am, so the opportunity to work with the leader in sports eCommerce and drive growth across the enterprise by speaking directly to the most passionate consumers on the planet is a dream come true.”
Orton has an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Relations from the University of California, Davis.
Fanatics properties include Fanatics (www.fanatics.com) and FansEdge (www.fansedge.com) brands, as well as the largest selection of sports collectibles and memorabilia through Fanatics Authentic (www.fanaticsauthentic.com). In addition, the company powers the e-commerce sites of all major professional sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, PGA), major media brands (NBC Sports, CBS Sports, FOX Sports) and over 150 collegiate and professional team properties.
