Ravensburger bolsters its executive team, promoting Filip Francke to global head of Games while Stephane Madi has been named CEO, North America.
Filip Francke
Ravensburger AG has announced an expansion to its executive structure. Filip Francke will lead the company’s rapidly growing gaming division as global head of Games. His role within Ravensburger AG will expand to focus on all the company’s gaming ventures, including its highly anticipated entry into the billion-dollar trading card game (TCG) market later this year with Disney Lorcana. Concurrently, Stephane Madi, formerly head of Ravensburger Canada, has been named as CEO of Ravensburger North America, where he will oversee the company’s portfolio and operations in the United States and Canada.
“Filip has overseen two important areas of our company during periods of rapid growth with passion and great dedication. As we enter the TCG market, we will rely heavily on his leadership and ingenuity to successfully guide this venture,” said Clemens Maier, CEO of Ravensburger AG. “At the same time, Stephane will bring commercial expertise and vast industry knowledge to his new role and continue to build Ravensburger’s brands into household names throughout the U.S. and Canada.”
Stephane Madi
Filip has served as CEO of Ravensburger North America since joining the company in 2017 from Helly Hansen and added the title of global head of Games in 2019. Under his leadership, Ravensburger North America has experienced exponential growth across its board games, puzzles and toys categories. In particular, Filip has ushered in the award-winning Villainous board game franchise, which currently includes Disney, Marvel and Star Wars lines and has sold more than 3.5m units world-wide since launching in 2018. As his role expanded to include oversight of games, he also played key roles in the company’s successful acquisition of ThinkFun and investment in crowdfunding platform Gamefound, which grew the company’s crowd funding revenue by more than 50% in 2022.
Stephane is an established veteran of the toy and games industry who joined Ravensburger in 2014 and assumed the position of head of Canada in 2020, having previously worked with Mega Brands as a part of its North American commercial team. As head of Ravensburger Canada, Stephane grew the company into one of Canada’s Top 10 Toys & Games companies. He also played a vital role in the commercial team, overseeing business growth in both the United States and Canada.
In his new role, Stephane will oversee Ravensburger AG’s portfolio of brands in the United States and Canada, including Ravensburger, Brio, ThinkFun and Wonder Forge.
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