Matthew Cook

British citizen, grew up in London. Matthew holds a Bachelor Degree in Archeology with a minor in Graphic Design. After University, he worked in London with Deloitte and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. In 1989 he moved to Italy with PWC, where he worked for 3 years. In 1993 he started his professional journey with Nike. Initially as Financial Controller of Nike Italy, he soon moved to Beaverton, ORE. (USA) as Global Financial Planning Manager. He came back to Italy as director of the footwear business and later became General Manager of Nike Italy and member of the European Board, role covered with great success for 8 years. He returned to UK as President/CEO of Umbro International in 2008. After 2 years he joined the Bata Group as Head of Athletes World. Under his leadership the unit was rebranded into AW LAB, doubling revenues and number of stores and initiating international expansion (Spain, Czech Republic, Romania, Singapore, Malaysia). He was then promoted to the position of President of Developed Markets in Bata Group, with responsabilities over Bata and AW LAB, position held for almost 3 years driving a turnaround of the Bata Business in Europe and an international expansion of AW LAB business, as well as the digital transformation of the business. At the end of 2018 he left Bata and he started a new journey in consulting and advisory activities, joining Fair Play as Senior Advisor.

A strategic mindset balanced with pragmatism and broad business experience give him the rare skill of being able to turn plans and visions into commercial reality.