Last checked at 23 Feb 2023 07:00
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, as retained as part of the law of England and Wales. Upon the publication of this announcement via the Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
Press release
23 February 2023
Guild Esports PLC
("Guild Esports", "Guild", or "the Company")
Appointment of new Chief Financial Officer
Strengthening of senior leadership team
Guild Esports PLC (LSE: GILD), a global teams organisation and lifestyle brand, is pleased to announce the appointment of Clare Jarvis as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary, with effect from 27 February 2023.
Ms Jarvis is a chartered accountant with more than ten years of financial and senior management experience across the media and entertainment industries. She previously served as Senior Director of Finance for the UK and Canada at Audible, the Amazon-owned audio entertainment brand, where she provided strategic and commercial insight into topics including content investment decisions, marketing spend efficiency and promotional activity, as well as pricing and overhead management. Her responsibilities covered all aspects of finance, including investment approvals, budgeting and forecasting, reporting and compliance, and she managed a team covering accounting, financial planning and analysis and business intelligence.
Prior to joining Audible, Ms Jarvis served as Finance Director at Shazam Entertainment Ltd. ("Shazam"), where she supported the senior leadership team across three funding rounds, raising US$90 million from leading venture capital backers. In her role at Shazam, she successfully redesigned the company's budgeting and forecasting processes to improve internal efficiency and managed a team of staff across the UK and the USA. Additionally, she has served as Finance Director at Orion Publishing Group Ltd.
Strengthening of senior leadership team
Matthew "Charlie" Charles has been appointed as Director of Operations, effective from 1 March 2023, joining Guild on a permanent basis having provided esports consultancy in an operations role since October 2022. Mr Charles is a seasoned senior executive with more than 17 years' experience in high growth sports technology, production and media businesses.
He has C-Suite experience from serving as interim Chief Operating Officer at Wavze, a music resource company providing simple access to rights-cleared music content created by emerging talent across the UK, with leading clients including the BBC, EA Sports and Nike. Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer of immersive sports technology company Oz Sports Inc. ("Oz Sports"), where he implemented strategic processes to improve operational efficiency and chaired the company's product council, which decided Oz Sports' go-to-market strategy. He additionally served as Vice President of Operations at Grabyo, an industry-leading video platform for cloud-based production and editing.
Alun Vaughan has been appointed as Senior Communications Manager effective from 6 March 2023. Mr Vaughan has impressive communications experience across sports, previously serving as Senior Corporate Communications Officer at FIFA, where he led a number of communication strategies and developed centralised messaging to promote stakeholder activities. He supported the development and execution of corporate communications activities across the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and led communications around the official global tour of the World Cup trophy ahead of the tournament.
As Communications Manager at the European Club Association ("ECA"), Mr Vaughan managed the organisation's rebranding and corporate identity change, and delivered the promotional launch of the #BeAChangemaker Campaign, the ECA's first ever women's football strategy. In addition, in his capacity as International Relations Manager at The Football Association ("The FA"), he developed the European stakeholder engagement strategy for the UK & Ireland's bid to host UEFA EURO 2028.
Jasmine Skee, CEO of Guild Esports, commented: "I'd like to extend the warmest of welcomes to Clare and Alun, and congratulate Charlie on his permanent position at Guild. Their high-level experience will further enhance Guild's senior leadership team and will allow the Company to more effectively implement its long-term strategy. I look forward to working closely with them as we look to increase our revenue streams, owned audience and continue growing the Guild brand."
For further information please contact:
Guild Esports | |
Jasmine Skee Chief Executive Neil Thapar Investor Relations | via Tancredi +44 207 887 7633
+44 7876 455 323 |
Tennyson Securities | |
Corporate Broker Peter Krens | +44 207 186 9030 |
Tancredi Intelligent Communication Media Relations | |
Helen Humphrey Charlie Hobbs Maddy Newman guild@tancredigroup.com | +44 7449 226 720 +44 7897 557 112 +44 7380 127 135 |
About Guild Esports:
Guild Esports PLC is a global fan-focused team organisation and lifestyle brand that fields professional players in gaming competitions under the Guild banner. Our in-house training academy aims to attract and nurture the best esports talent, and our goal is to provide the ultimate entertainment experience alongside a distinctive lifestyle brand authentic to the esports community worldwide. Guild is led by an experienced management team of esports veterans and co-owned by David Beckham. The Company is headquartered in the UK and its shares are listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange (ticker: GILD) and on the OTCQB Venture Market in the United States (ticker: GULDF). Please visit www.guildesports.com for more information.