Amy Howe
FanDuel Appoints Caralyn Cooley as Chief People Officer
FanDuel, North America’s premier online gaming company, announced it has appointed Caralyn Cooley as the company’s new Chief People Officer (CPO). Cooley will join FanDuel’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT) reporting to CEO Amy Howe. In her role as CPO, Cooley will be responsible for the continued acceleration of FanDuel’s people strategy reflecting the company’s extraordinary growth trajectory. Cooley joins FanDuel as a seasoned multi-time CPO, with deep experience scaling global operations, shaping unique cultures and guiding teams through periods of intense growth. She will assume leadership of FanDuel’s people organization inclusive of human resources, talent acquisition, diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), organizational effectiveness, employee branding, training, learning and development, compensation and employee benefits in service to the company’s Casino, Sports, and Operations business units.
“I am very excited to welcome Caralyn to FanDuel. Throughout her distinguished career Caralyn has held global roles building highly effective people teams that drive performance and reflect the needs of today’s diverse corporate culture. Her energy and passion for sports and the gaming sector made her an ideal fit, and her arrival strengthens our executive leadership team,” said Amy Howe, Chief Executive Officer for FanDuel.
Cooley most recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer for Bowery Farming, a U.S. vertical farming company that designs and builds smart indoor environments to reimagine the future of food. Bowery’s pesticide-free produce has been in the market since 2016 and is sold in thousands of retail locations and via e-commerce platforms including Amazon. During her tenure, Bowery grew from a proof-of-concept farm with one location to the largest vertical farming company in the US. Under her leadership, she built a talent model to scale globally, designed a total compensation strategy for all levels of the company, created a holistic diversity, equity and inclusion program and led Bowery’s business continuity response during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to Bowery, Cooley held the role of Chief People Officer for Nordeus from 2017 to 2019. Nordeus is the gaming studio behind Top Eleven, the world’s most successful mobile sports game. As CPO, she partnered with the company’s founders to architect Nordeus’ organizational structure, culture and talent acquisition strategy to fuel its rapid growth. In 2021, less than five years after her arrival, Nordeus was acquired by Take Two Interactive for a reported $378 million.
Cooley earned her Master’s in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University. She also holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Human Resource Management from State University of New York-Oswego.