Dive Brief:
- Funko on Thursday announced the appointment of Cynthia Williams as its chief executive officer, effective May 20, according to a company press release. Williams will also join the company’s board of directors.
- Williams comes to Funko from Hasbro, where she served as the president of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro Gaming.
- The toy company made the executive announcement on the same day it reported Q1 earnings. For the three months ending March 31, net sales were $215.7 million, down 14.4% year over year, while net loss narrowed 61% to $23.7 million. The company reiterated its guidance for the fiscal year.
Dive Insight:
Williams is taking on the top spot at Funko following a time of C-suite change.
Michael Lunsford has been serving as the company’s interim CEO since last July, following then-CEO Brian Mariotti taking a leave of absence and stepping down from the chief executive position.
The company’s president, Andrew Perlmutter, resigned from his position in February. Prior to his time as president, Perlmutter was Funko’s CEO for one year. The company’s CFO and COO, Steve Nave, stepped down from those roles in March after only one year. Deputy CFO Yves LePendeven has been acting financial chief as of mid-March, and the company is not planning to fill the chief operating officer role.
During her two years at Hasbro, Williams oversaw the company’s portfolio of games including Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and Monopoly. Williams resigned from Hasbro at the end of April. She also has experience at Microsoft, where she was its general manager and vice president of the Gaming Ecosystem Commercial Team and expanded Xbox Gaming. Williams also spent over a decade at Amazon where she led Fulfillment by Amazon.
Funko’s first quarter was impacted by strikes in Hollywood and a lack of new entertainment content, according to Lunsford. Funko expects the content schedule to remain soft into the next quarter and then pick up by the second half of the year, the executive said on a call with analysts.
The company has been working to reduce its inventory levels, and last year cut them by half. For the quarter, inventory was $112 million, down 6%. A year ago, Funko destroyed between $30 million and $36 million worth of inventory due to surplus stocks stretching its fulfillment network.
Funko laid off 12% of its workforce last summer.
