Since Eric Roza bought CrossFit in June 2020, several of the company’s leaders have left after short tenures at the company.
Since May, at least three executives have left, and that doesn’t include the early 2022 firing of Dave Castro as head of the CrossFit Games or Roza’s move out of the CEO role in February into the role of chairman of the board.
Alison Andreozzi, who had joined the company in September 2021 as chief financial officer, served as interim CEO until CrossFit named former Marine Don Faul as CEO on Aug. 2.
In June, Andreozzi brought Castro back as an advisor to the affiliates. Andreozzi still serves as CFO, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The notable departures in the executive ranks include Jason Dunlop, a former Nike and Starbucks executive, who came on board in July 2021 in the newly created role of president. He left on Aug. 26 to join Orangetheory Fitness as president of international.
In May, Jeremy Landis resigned as chief technology officer, a role he was in for 17 months. He cited the company’s move away from transformative initiatives to a move toward shoring up the company’s technology foundation as one of the reasons for his departure, according to a memo obtained by Morning Chalk Up, a website that follows CrossFit news.
In July, Landis joined Restore Hyper Wellness as its chief product and technology officer.
One of the most recent departures was Erin Clift, who had experience at companies such as Spotify and Waze. She served as CrossFit’s chief marketing officer for a year, leaving this month.
Current Leadership
CrossFit’s new CEO brings to the job experience in the Marines and in business. Faul previously was CEO at smart apparel company Athos. Prior to that, he served as head of operations for Pinterest, running its international growth and operations, customer support and other monetization efforts. He also has experience as vice president of global online operations for Facebook and manager of online sales and operations at Google. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, Faul served as a Marine platoon commander and earned his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business
“At a time when global health trends are in decline, when people are starved for personal connection and community, CrossFit is more important than ever,” Faul said in the announcement about his hiring. “I’ve experienced the impact of CrossFit firsthand, seeing how it helps people improve their fitness, reverse chronic disease, and build meaningful connections with other members of the CrossFit community. There are over 14,000 CrossFit affiliates around the world that have changed millions of people’s lives. But we’re just getting started. Our job is to share CrossFit with the rest of the world, so our affiliates and coaches can help and inspire the tens of millions of people we haven’t yet reached.”
Upon Roza’s move into the chairman role, he shared that the company had added more than 1,000 affiliates despite COVID-19 restrictions, totaling 13,000 affiliates globally. The company also had credentialed more than 15,000 new coaches and welcomed hundreds of thousands of new members.
At that time, CrossFit also shared the following with its employees:
“Thanks in large part to your outstanding efforts, the company is on solid financial ground, and all of our lines of business are healthy and growing. We are entering our most exciting period of the year with the Open, and we’re tracking well toward our aggressive targets for participation. Our registrations for core EDU courses (L1, OL1, L2, L3) are up 20% year-over-year, and we have already added more than 100 new gyms to the community this year. In short, we’re heading in the right direction, and we have great momentum.”