Fanatics appoints Krishna Rao as CFO of commerce business

Fanatics, a global digital sports platform, has announced the appointment of Krishna Rao as the new chief financial officer of Fanatics Commerce.

Fanatics Commercer operates a vertically-integrated platform of digital and physical capabilities for licensed sports merchandise.

In his role, Rao, the company said in a statement, will oversee all finance functions and strategic planning activities for the commerce business, reporting to Fanatics Commerce CEO and Fanatics vice chairman, Doug Mack.

“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,” said Mack.

Rao joins Fanatics from Cedar, a healthcare payments and patient engagement platform, where he served as the company’s CFO, leading both the finance function and operational initiatives. Previously, he was global head of corporate & business development and led corporate and operations FP&A for Airbnb. Rao previously served as a private equity investor at Blackstone and as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company.

“The opportunity to partner with Doug and the incredibly talented global Commerce team as they continue to revolutionise the licensed sports industry is truly exciting,” added Rao.

Rao holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and received an A.B. in economics from Harvard University. He will be based in Fanatics’ West Coast innovation center in San Mateo, CA.