G2 Esports Appoints Henning Christiansson as Commercial Director

Berlin-based esports organization G2 Esports announced Thursday that it has appointed Henning Christiansson as its new commercial director, the first of many new “director-level hires” the company plans on making over the next several months, according to a release. In addition to hiring Christiansson, G2 has promoted Julius Ylänne to the role of director of esports, as part of a company-wide push to expand its leadership team.

Christiansson, a gaming and technology veteran, spent nearly six years at Logitech’s Logitech G division in Switzerland as the marketing manager (EMEA & AP) for esports and as a global category manager for esports. Prior to that, he worked for gaming festival and esports company DreamHack for two-and-a-half years as its global project manager. Prior to joining DreamHack, Christiansson served as digital director of Sweden-based advertising and marketing firm Strateg Agency for nearly a year, and as director of operations at Stockholm-based online audio and video media services company Nyheter24-Gruppen for more than a year.

In a release, G2 said that this hire is part of the company’s push to increase its “focus on driving commercial success and pioneering initiatives that will redefine the ever-evolving esports landscape,” with both Ylänne and Christiansson focusing on advancing the organization’s “commercial efforts to accelerate growth as the company diversifies its revenues.”

G2 has expanded its footprint in the last several months, moving outside of Europe and into new regions such as North America, where it secured a Call of Duty League franchise (Minnesota RØKKR), a Rocket League roster (mostly made up of players from Minnesota RØKKR’s former parent company Version1), and a Valorant Champions Tour Americas partnership agreement (once held by The Guard). In Asia, G2 Esports is represented by Philippines-based G2 Blacklist in Wild Rift, and G2.iG in Dota 2 in China. 

In Europe, G2 competes in the LEC, Counter-Strike 2, Rainbow Six Siege, sim racing, Fortnite, and fields a Europe-focused all-women’s Valorant Game Changers roster with G2 Gozen.