Kal Hourd will no longer be running the show at Guild Esports. After helping co-found the company and serving as its long-time Chief Executive Officer, Hourd has elected to step away from the esports team that is co-owned by English soccer legend David Beckham.
Hourd said that this was a “personal decision.” He is now scheduled to exit the company at the end of the year.
In his place, Guild has promoted Jasmine Skee to the role of new CEO. Prior to this promotion, she had served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Guild since March 2022.
“On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Kal for his leadership, under which Guild has grown from a startup to a leading global eSports brand partnered with world-renowned brands including Samsung, Subway, Coca-Cola, and Sky, with an engaged audience and headquartered in the state-of-the-art Sky Guild Gaming Centre,” said Guild’s non-executive chairman, Derek Lew. “With the first phase of Guild’s growth complete, he has taken the decision to step down.”
Things have not been going all that well for Guild Esports over the last 12 months. As of this writing, the company’s stock price has fallen to $1.45 from $3.65.
The Profit‘s Take:
It’s not uncommon for startups to move a founder out in favor of more experienced management. The timing here is curious though given that Guild has been struggling for a while. Maybe they chose the CMO because they want to put a greater emphasis on marketing. Then again, maybe the ship is just sinking.
(All information was provided by BusinessCloud, LinkedIn, Proactive Investors, and Yahoo! Finance)
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