BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Board of directors

Debbie Bestwick MBE
Chief Executive Officer
Debbie Bestwick is an industry leader with over 30 years in the games industry and is one of the founding members of Team17. Initially leading Team17’s Sales and Marketing department, Debbie went on to become responsible for all of the commercial and legal aspects of the business, working globally with top tier games distributors, publishers, developers, and licence partners. Debbie became joint CEO in 2009 and sole CEO in 2010, leading the company through its 2011 management buy-out and subsequent sale of a minority stake to LDC in 2016. Debbie was awarded an MBE for services to the video games industry in 2016, joint winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year UK Disruptor category in 2017 and was awarded the inaugural Outstanding Contribution to the UK Games Industry at the 2017 Golden Joystick Awards. Previously Debbie has been honoured with the Hall of Fame award at the European Women in Games Conference 2015 and MCV Person of the Year award in 2015.

Mark Crawford
Chief Financial Officer
Mark was appointed Chief Financial Officer in April 2020, having initially joined as Interim CFO in November 2019. Mark has over 30 years’ experience with a decade at Executive and Board level and is a qualified Chartered Management Accountant. He joined Team17 from TravelUp, a privately-owned online travel business, where he was Chief Financial Officer. Previously, Mark was Chief Financial Officer of TP Group plc, an AIM-listed specialist technology, energy and defence business, and prior to that held a number of positions with large corporates, including Glaxo Pharmaceuticals, PepsiCo Restaurants, Gondola Restaurants and more recently Kingfisher plc, supporting their major pan-European supply chain and logistics transformation programme.

Chris Bell
Non-Executive Chair
Chris joined the Board of Directors in 2018, prior to Team17’s IPO on AIM. Chris has, since 2015, been Senior Independent Director for The Rank Group Plc, where he is Senior Independent Director and sits on the Audit Committee and the Nominations Committee, as well as the Remuneration Committee and the Safer Gambling Committee. Chris is Non-Executive Chair of two AIM listed companies: XL Media plc, Inc and OnTheMarket plc, both of which he took to market and on which he serves on key governance committees. Chris has also been a Non-Executive Director of the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust Enterprises since 2016. Chris joined Ladbroke Group plc in 1991, becoming Managing Director of its Racing Division in 1995. In 2000, he became Chief Executive of Ladbrokes Worldwide and joined the Board of the rebranded Hilton Group plc, becoming Chief Executive of Ladbrokes plc, following the sale of the Hilton International Hotel division, until 2010. He has also served as Non-Executive Director at Spirit Pub Company plc (2011 to 2015), Gaming Realms plc (2017 to 2018) and as Senior Independent Director at Quintain Estates and Development plc (2010 to 2015). Prior to joining Ladbrokes plc (formerly Hilton Group plc and Ladbrokes Group plc), Chris held senior marketing positions at Allied Lyons plc.

Penny Judd
Non-Executive Director
Penny joined the Team17 Board in 2018 in advance of the successful IPO on AIM. Penny has over 30 years’ experience in Compliance, Regulation, Corporate Finance and Audit. Penny is currently Chair of FTSE 250 listed Plus500 Ltd. She is also a Non-Executive Director of AIM-listed Alpha Financial Markets Consulting plc and TruFin plc and serves as Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of both companies. Penny was, until June 2016, a Managing Director and EMEA Head of Compliance at Nomura International plc, a position she held for three years. Prior to this, Penny worked at UBS Investment Bank for nine years and held the position of Managing Director, EMEA Head of Compliance. Penny also acted as Head of Equity Markets at the London Stock Exchange and qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

Jennifer Lawrence
Non-Executive Director
Jen was appointed Non-Executive Director in February 2019. Jen has a wealth of experience, as Executive People Director for Card Factory PLC, Jen is jointly responsible for the successful financial and operational running of the business. With over 8,000 colleagues employed nationwide, Jen is responsible for ensuring the employment base is aligned with delivering the strategic objectives. Jen works closely with the Remuneration Committee Chair at Card Factory on all Remuneration matters and is therefore brings first-hand experience to Team 17. Prior to joining Card Factory, Jen held senior HR roles with Costcutter, TDX Group, Boots and Boots Opticians. Jen is chair of Team17’s remuneration committee.

Martin Hellawell
Non-Executive Director
Martin was appointed Non-Executive Director in September 2019 and became Senior Independent Non-Executive Director in March 2021. Martin has significant experience across the capital markets arena with a particular focus on both technology and high games label growth businesses. Martin is currently Chair of Softcat plc (“Softcat”), a leading provider of IT infrastructure products and services. He joined Softcat in 2006 as Managing Director. During his tenure, Martin guided Softcat through a significant period of growth culminating in its successful IPO in November 2015. Prior to Softcat, Martin worked at Computacenter plc, where he was part of the team that oversaw Computacenter’s IPO in 1998. In August 2019, Martin was also appointed Chair of Raspberry Pi Trading Limited and in April 2021, was appointed Chair of musicMagpie PLC.