Good morning. Stuart Canfield, CFO of Electronic Arts (EA), one of the largest video game publishers in the world, has a front-row seat to how the company and gaming industry have evolved over the years. Canfield became finance chief in July 2023 but joined EA in 2003 and has held more than a dozen roles at the company.
“Actually, I've had 14 different jobs during my journey,” Canfield told me. “I've lived in four different countries with EA.”
The Fortune 500 company, founded in 1982, is headquartered in Redwood City, Calif. Some of its well-known brands include EA SPORTS FC, EA SPORTS Madden NFL, The Sims, Battlefield, and Apex Legends. EA will host its Investor Day on Sept. 17, where the company will lay out how they think about opportunities for growth—including some beyond their core games business, according to Canfield.
The gaming industry has been “incredibly disrupted by technology and innovation,” Canfield said, but added EA is well positioned to capitalize on the broader market. The company is moving toward a platform-as-a-service, which is a “dramatic shift” from traditional gaming, he noted.
“As a kid, I went to the store, bought a game, took it home, loaded the tray, and played a singular experience,” Canfield said. “Now, I’m downloading a game, logging on and talking to friends and playing with them at the same time, and being truly socially connected.”
EA has evolved from a video game maker into an interactive entertainment company, with most of EA's revenue no longer solely coming from selling games. Over 70% of EA’s business is driven by recurring services inside the product, Canfield said. EA reported total net revenue of $7.6 billion for the fiscal year ending on March 31, up 2% year over year. In EA’s most recent earnings report released on July 30, the company reported net revenue of $1.6 billion for the quarter.
As the technology in gaming continues to evolve, talent at EA increasingly includes analysts, engineers, and large language model experts, which wasn’t traditionally part of the skill sets needed within the company, Canfield said—adding that he has had the opportunity to acquire a number of those himself.
'It was incredibly powerful for me'
Born and raised in England, Canfield’s first of many finance roles upon joining EA in 2003 was as a European financial analyst. He soon moved on to become manager of EA Sports’ strategic financial planning and reporting. Since then, he has held a variety of senior leadership positions in global finance, investor relations, and operations for EA and EA Sports, a major sub-label.
But it was not a linear career path, Canfield told me. He made several lateral moves across geographies, like becoming senior director of strategic financial planning at EA Sports in Vancouver, for example. And, although, they were lateral moves, he remained in the roles long enough to accomplish strategic goals for the company.
Over the years, when jobs became available, and there was a need that matched his skill sets, Canfield would pursue the job, using these opportunities to learn and get exposure to the business. And there were times when the job coincided with his interests off the clock.
“When I became CFO of EA Sports, it was incredibly powerful for me to unite my passion outside of work, inside of work,” Canfield told me.
He eventually took on financial leadership roles in EA corporate, such as SVP of enterprise finance. This path and the experience gained ultimately led to Canfield being the first internal CFO hire.
“Every prior CFO has been an external hire which sends a really important signal to my team globally that we can develop and be successful in building out a career at EA,” Canfield said.
“The transformation of the industry has been incredible, and it's what's kept me at this company for almost 22 years," he said. "It’s never dull."
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
The following sections of CFO Daily were curated by Greg McKenna
