# Management Team
# Headlines
• Hitmarker currently has two executive directors, Philip and Richard Huggan. The pair are brothers from Tyne and Wear, with Philip being the Founder and creative force behind the brand, and Richard being the Managing Director and organiser of the business.
• Philip is an accomplished web designer/developer who has already built multiple successful esports companies. He conceptualised Hitmarker while building a jobs website in traditional sports. He's responsible for the long-term strategy of the business and everything related to branding, design, and development from both a creative and technical perspective.
• Richard is a proven leader and has been involved with Hitmarker for almost two years now, having previously worked in the sports industry for a number of years. He's responsible for the day-to-day management of the business and has overseen a period of very strong growth since taking charge of operations.
Philip Huggan - Founder
Responsibilities: Philip is responsible for the long-term strategy and vision of the business, company culture, and everything related to branding, design, and development from both a creative and technical perspective.
Core Skills: Creativity, Decision Making, Market Knowledge, Relationship Management, Vision.
Professional Background:
Between April 2010 and November 2012, while studying towards his BSc degree in Interactive Media Design at Northumbria University, Philip started the online esports community EUeSports as a side project, alongside undertaking regular part-time employment as an Event Manager for the European Gaming League.
EUeSports was based around European PlayStation/Xbox esports, and his position allowed him to create competitive rulesets for tournaments and leagues that took place online and offline at organised events (LANs).
His success in this space led to the European Gaming League, a much larger version of EUeS, retaining his services as a consultant. EGL enlisted Philip to run their offline and online PlayStation tournaments, which included live production elements like managing the streaming schedule and instructing the casters (commentators).
Having grown EUeSports to a size where it was becoming difficult to manage alongside his other responsibilities, Philip sold the website to esports news website Dexerto in December 2012.
Following this transaction and the completion of his studies, he joined Newcastle-based design agency TH_NK as a full-time web designer/developer, primarily working on their BlackBerry contract. Becoming disillusioned with that working environment just a few months later he handed in his notice and set up as an independent freelancer, taking on client work both inside and outside of esports.
His new digital design agency NEEN Media was incorporated in July 2013 and took on extra freelance staff to satisfy the growing demand for its services. Later Philip would partner up with one of these members of staff to create esports clothing brand RavenGG, which NEEN eventually transformed into in March 2014.
Raven quickly grew to be the leading provider of esports apparel in the UK scene, taking market share from their competitors with superior design and production quality, far shorter lead times, and an all-round more professional approach.
Leading Raven through two years of solid growth until March 2016, Philip sold his share of the company to his partner and set about pursuing his latest idea: Hitmarker.
Richard Huggan - Managing Director
Responsibilities: Richard handles the day-to-day leadership of the business. He is primarily responsible for formulating and implementing strategy, distributing workload between staff members, cash flow, recruitment, and business development.
Core Skills: Communication, Fundraising, Leadership, Organisation, Recruitment.
Professional Background:
Between October 2009 and July 2011, while studying towards his first class BSc degree in Sport Coaching and Performance at The University of Hull, Richard spent two seasons as a First Team Performance Analyst at Scunthorpe United Football Club in the English Championship. His responsibilities included recording matches and providing feedback to players and coaching staff.
Returning home after the completion of his studies, he helped run the family domestic appliance repair business before being hired as a freelance Remote Football Performance Analyst by startup company Onside Analysis in July 2013. This role involved watching video of matches and writing scouting reports for football clubs and sports betting clients, and lasted just two months before he was promoted to Remote Scottish Premier League Research Analyst.
This position included the same responsibilities as before, with the addition of writing pre-match previews for every game in the SPL. He operated in this capacity between August 2013 and July 2014, before a further promotion to Remote Football Research Coordinator/English Premier League Analyst in July 2014. This was Richard’s first experience of management, with 25 remote staff falling under his guidance.
The company had a strong year and was acquired by VC-backed Stratagem Technologies, who offered him the title Head of Sports in June 2015. Richard relocated to Central London for the role, which gave him over 100 direct reports and first-hand exposure to fundraising activities, in addition to frontline sports trading experience.
His upwards trajectory continued, and he was given keyman status when he became a company director in September 2015, a title held until Stratagem undertook a series A fundraising round and underwent a change of leadership in March 2017.
Richard accepted the new position of Business Development Lead and oversaw the creation of the company’s flagship mobile product “StrataBet”, before exiting the business on good terms in September 2017 in order to join his brother at Hitmarker.