Fanatics names Krishna Rao as CFO of commerce business

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
May 11, 2023

Digital sports platform Fanatics announced on Thursday the appointment of Krishna Rao as the new chief financial officer of Fanatics commerce.

In this role, Krishna will oversee all finance functions and strategic planning activities for the commerce business, which operates a vertically-integrated platform of digital and physical capabilities for licensed sports merchandise.

“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 Fanatics commerce CEO and Fanatics vice chairman, Doug Mack, who Rao will report to. 

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“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 healthcare payments and patient engagement platform Cedar. Most recently, he served as the company’s CFO, leading both the finance function and operational initiatives. 

Prior to this, he was global head of corporate and business development and led corporate and operations FP&A for Airbnb, where he is credited for playing a leading role in raising over $10 billion of equity and debt capital, including Airbnb’s IPO and private financings. Rao 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,” added 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.”

In April, Fanatics announced it is expanding its partnership with WWE to assume operations of its global event merchandise business.