Fanatics Hires Crawford for IR Role With Possible IPO on Horizon
Fanatics has hired Deborah Crawford, an exec with previous stops at Meta and Netflix, to fill a newly created role running the company’s investor relations.
Crawford will oversee Fanatics’ relationship with its current—and future—shareholders, the company said Thursday in a statement. She would also play a critical role should it eventually choose to IPO, a long-stated goal of Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin.
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“Throughout my career, I’ve always admired and been attracted to organizations at the forefront of their industry, and in my eyes, there could not be a more exciting company to join right now than Fanatics,” Crawford said in a statement.
Companies often begin building out their IR departments prior to going public, and Crawford has direct experience. Fanatics is in the process of expanding its business into new verticals, including trading cards and sports betting, and executives believe that an IPO, should it happen, would likely be in the next few years, not the next few months.
A Fanatics spokesman said in a statement that Crawford’s hiring doesn’t change the company’s timing around a possible IPO. “Our focus remains on expanding our businesses and building the leading digital sports platform over the next decade and beyond,” he said.
Crawford spent more than a decade at Meta (Nasdaq: META), serving most recently as the company’s head of investor relations during its IPO. She previously held similar roles at Ancestry.com and Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), where she initiated the company’s first formal IR functions. Netflix went public in 2002; Meta, then called Facebook, went public in 2012.
Crawford will report to Fanatics CFO Glenn Schiffman. Denise Albero, who previously oversaw IR at Fanatics, among other responsibilities, will continue to lead the company’s financial planning and analysis.
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