Games Workshop’s Group Reporting Manager Elizabeth Harrison “will be nominated to join the board of directors… as Group Finance Director” at the firm’s annual general meeting this September, according to a corporate announcement published on Wednesday. Provided shareholders approve Harrison’s appointment, this will put her in charge of the purse strings for the entire Warhammer universe.
Warhammer 40k fans like nothing more than comparing Games Workshop (GW) to the Imperium of Man; former CEO Tom Kirby was often compared to the Emperor of Mankind by fans (the practise isn’t quite as prevalent when referring to his successor Kevin Rountree). If we assume the board of directors can be related to the High Lords of Terra, this would make Harrison the Master of the Administratum, the galactic bureaucracy responsible for tithes and book-keeping across the Imperium.
A Finance Director is a senior executive who makes sure money is well spent; Harrison will be a ‘Group’ Finance Director because GW PLC is actually a bundle of smaller connected companies that each holds part of the business. Finance Director responsibilities include keeping full account of the firm’s cash, assets, liabilities, and so on; making sure that info is available to other decision makers; devising long term financial strategies; and co-ordinating with the teams that deliver big capital projects.
Recent GW financial reports have highlighted ongoing investment to modernize the firm’s IT and warehouse infrastructure as its main development project, so this will be on Harrison’s radar. GW is also investigating opening a fourth factory unit to keep up with still-growing demand for Warhammer 40k faction miniatures and Age of Sigmar armies.
According to GW’s announcement of the appointment, Harrison has been Games Workshop’s Group Reporting Manager since 2013, and joined the firm back in 2000 “as a finance manager for the German sales business”. That means she joined at the tail end of the Specialist Games era, after the publication of Mordheim, Battlefleet Gothic, and Warmaster, and just before the explosively successful Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.
Harrison replaces long-standing post holder Rachel Tongue, who announced her retirement from the post and the company in Games Workshop’s half-year report, published January 2024. Her nest is well-feathered: she sold over $875,000 of her shares this April.
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