Dire Wolves Reveal New Owner and Management Team

Oceania esports team Dire Wolves has revealed its new management team as part of a series of announcements this week that will include a rebrand and entry into new games. Jason Spiller assumes the role as owner of the organization, after firm Guinevere Capital and other backers divested their interest earlier this year, in line with Riot Games’ rules on multi-team ownership in League of Legends esports. 

Dave Harris, managing director of Guinevere Capital, told The Esports Observer that while his company will continue its team business in Europe with Excel Esports and the London Spitfire, in Oceania it transitioned to a service provider role through agency work and via its Esports High Performance Centers. 

“The key has been to find people that have that non-endemic esport experience, as well as endemic experience,” he said. “That is like gold dust in this industry, and it’s great that it’s finally worked with Dire Wolves, with Jason and his backers able to step in.”

Spiller has a 15 year tenure in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ)’s gaming and esports scene. From 2015-17 he was lead for a number of categories for Microsoft in the region, including first-party Xbox titles and Halo esports events, before joining Omen by HP for two years, most recently as marketing manager for gaming, esports, and immersive technologies. 

Connecting with Harris through the Esports Games Association Australia (EGAA), Spiller saw an opportunity to support ANZ esports as a whole, particularly his own country of New Zealand. “I’m very passionate about supporting Kiwis, especially because there are a great amount of New Zealanders that I think can make a big impact on the world, and the Dire Wolves seem to be the perfect way to try and continue doing that,” he told The Esports Observer.

Alongside Spiller, the Dire Wolves welcomes Richard Bryan as head of production, who had produced tournaments for Omen by HP in the past, and has a background in music and film production. Head of Content William Slingsby has worked with numerous esports teams, TVNZ, and Auckland Basketball, and self-produced the Four v Four documentary series on New Zealand’s Halo scene. Jordan Gardiner, head of design, has built UI assets for major LAN events in the region, and created the new logo and branding to be unveiled later this week.

On the performance side, Craig Nimmo joins as general manager, returning to esports after a three year IT management tenure with Australian supermarket chain Coles. “I met him years ago when he was commentating in APAC and ANZ for Call of Duty 4, and Battlefield,” said Spiller. “He’s got a ton of experience both in gaming and more generally in managing complex organizations. It was just a massive win to be able to bring him on.”

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