FaZe Holdings Board Fires CEO Lee Trink

Credit: FaZe/Lee Trink

FaZe Holdings (Nasdaq: FaZe) announced Monday that its CEO Lee Trink has been terminated and is required to resign as a member of FaZe’s board of directors under the company’s corporate governance rules. Trink is replaced, effective immediately, by Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Christoph Pachler. Pachler will continue in his current roles in addition to his duties as interim CEO.

In a Form 8K filed Monday FaZe wrote the following:

On September 9, 2023, the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of FaZe Holdings Inc. (the “Company”) took action to terminate Lee Trink from his position as Chief Executive Officer of the Company, effective immediately. In accordance with the Company’s Corporate Governance Guidelines, as a result of this termination, Mr. Trink is required to submit his resignation as a member of the Board.

It is unclear specifically why the board decided to terminate Trink’s employment, or what compensation the company will have to pay him despite being terminated. 

Trink got involved with FaZe Clan in March 2016 as an advisor and took on the role of CEO in September 2018. While the company has had a number of challenges and controversies under Trink’s watch, he also helped the organization raise tens of millions in capital and become one of the first major esports organizations in North America to become publicly traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange.  

Trink’s termination follows the resignation of another leadership figure in FaZe Clan: in a Form 8K filed with the SEC on Sept. 1, FaZe announced the departure of Daniel Shribman as chairman of the board. Shribman was announced as a part of a “post-merger board of directors” on March 22, 2022, prior to the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) merger with B. Riley. Shribman currently serves as the chief investment officer of B. Riley Financial and the president of B. Riley Principal Investments. B. Riley is currently the largest shareholder in FaZe Holdings.

As The Esports Advocate noted in a May 10 report, B. Riley Principal Investments, LLC (which Shribman controls) holds just over 11M shares, while Lee Trink controls roughly 5M shares of FaZe stock.

In August, a report suggested that two other publicly traded companies—GameSquare and Enthusiast Gaming—were in talks with FaZe for a buyout or merger. Furthermore, the Faze board approved a reverse stock split in July to avoid delisting from the Nasdaq, but the company has not initiated one as of this writing; and has not made any announcement on when and if it will pull the trigger on that option. 

Faze stock is currently sitting at a 52-week low of $0.22, as of this writing, on the Nasdaq.