Catapult appoints former Amazon executive as Chief Operating Officer

Catapult has appointed strategy and operations executive, Chris Cooper, as its Chief Operating Officer to further enhance the company’s scale and meaningfully drive its strategic growth.

Mr. Cooper comes to Catapult with extensive global leadership experience driving expansion into international markets, tailoring business models to local cultural practices, and delivering results through volatile business cycles.

His recent most notable role was Executive Vice President of International Operations and New Business Expansion at Audible, an Amazon subsidiary. In this position, Mr. Cooper managed over 10 teams across the globe as well as marketplace expansion opportunities. Beyond leading International efforts, Mr. Cooper was also responsible for driving the emerging business team, which included the launch of a B2B offering, among other initiatives.

Commenting on Mr. Cooper’s appointment, Catapult’s CEO Will Lopes said:

“Chris brings to Catapult a wealth of operational expertise, as well as decades of experience leading international organisations across the globe. As we enter a new fiscal year, which will be an important time as we scale Catapult’s operations, and having Chris in my team previously, I am confident that he will use his talents to help us execute and achieve our strategic goals.”

Prior to joining Audible, Mr. Cooper held a number of senior executive roles at Prudential, establishing and leading the International Investments unit and driving corporate development initiatives (i.e. M&A, partnerships, joint ventures) outside of the U.S. While maintaining his role at Prudential, he also took on an external assignment as the acting Business Administrator for the City of Newark in 2014 under then-newly-elected Mayor Ras Baraka. And finally, in the early stage of his career, he was a logistics expert in PepsiCo.

Outside of his corporate life, Mr. Cooper is also Vice Chairman of The Washington Center, a higher-education non-profit organisation that bridges the gap between higher education and professional careers – offering dynamic, experiential learning opportunities to empower and motivate young people to become engaged global citizens.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Cooper said:

“I believe Catapult is well placed to achieve exponential growth in an exciting industry and look forward to bringing my experience and leadership to such a strong team. Catapult’s distinctive position to take sports analytics to the next level and continue to set the bar on how elite teams and athletes around the world make data-driven decisions using the latest performance technology is what drew me to this opportunity.”