Acting CEO James Rushton Redefines Senior Leadership Team to Align with Business Priorities and Expansion Plans
DAZN Group announced today a series of leadership appointments to ready the business for the debut of its global service and a renewed focus on its original markets.
“With DAZN’s paying subscriber base on track to be fully recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels by Q4 this year, DAZN is gearing up for an exciting and new phase of growth,” said DAZN Group Acting CEO James Rushton. “We will continue to invest in our initial core launch markets – as evidenced by the recent announcements regarding the major UEFA Champions League and Bundesliga packages in DACH, whilst increasing our commitment to becoming a global sports destination platform through increased focus on DAZN’s forthcoming global service.”
Currently in beta, DAZN’s global service will launch this fall in more than 200 countries and territories. Whilst the initial offering will focus on DAZN’s global catalogue of live sports rights – most notably championship-level boxing, DAZN is committed to begin adding more sports and sports content to the global service from early next year.
“In particular, the development of non-live content will play a major role in our expansion plans. As one of the key learnings from the pandemic, the relationship between non-live content engagement and customer retention has never been stronger.” Rushton said. “We have a deep understanding of our customers and we will look to develop a broader and more meaningful value proposition by providing a data-driven, personally curated mix of quality live and non-live content that will attract people to the platform and keep them coming back on a regular basis.”
To properly align with these priorities, DAZN Group has redefined its senior leadership team to provide greater focus on the customer experience, efficient international expansion and non-live content.
Key Senior Leadership Team Appointments
John Gleasure appointed to new role of Executive Vice Chairman. John will work alongside Acting CEO James Rushton and Executive Chairman John Skipper on the near-term transformation agenda and long-term company strategy, as well as key priorities including global partnerships and diversity & inclusion. John is a member of the DAZN Group Board of Directors and is an original founder of DAZN and the Perform Group.
Ed McCarthy named Chief Operating Officer. Ed is responsible for leading DAZN’s live and non-live content strategy, as well as the organization’s new market strategy and will take operational responsibility for all ventures and associated corporate strategy. Ed joined DAZN from Access Industries where he was responsible for corporate strategy, M&A transactions, ventures and transformation across multiple industries.
Veronica Diquattro elevated to new role of Chief Customer & Innovation Officer. In this new position, Veronica is responsible for all aspects of delivering a seamless customer experience including product development, brand, programming and editorial curation of content. Veronica also oversees DAZN’s businesses in Italy and Spain, as she did in her previous role as EVP, Southern Europe. Prior to DAZN, Veronica was Managing Director of Southern and Eastern Europe at Spotify, after leading the launch of the music service in Italy and key markets in Latin America. She also worked on the launch of the Android Market and Google Play in Italy for Google.
Paul Morton promoted to Chief Revenue Officer, the role previously held by Rushton. This includes accountability for marketing, distribution, commercial premises and DAZN’s markets – including the forthcoming global service offering and new revenue initiatives. Additionally, he is responsible for data science & insight as well as revenue management. Paul was previously EVP, Finance and has been with the company since 2010.
Ben King promoted to new role of Chief Subscription Officer. Ben is responsible for the growth of DAZN’s direct-to-consumer subscription service – leading marketing strategy and overseeing distribution partnerships with the world’s leading app stores, device manufacturers, as well as telecommunications and retail companies. Ben joined DAZN in 2019 following 12 years in senior marketing, commercial and general management positions for Apple’s services business – including iTunes, the App Store and Apple Music – all over the world.