Voting closed Saturday in the election to fill five positions on the Fantasy Sports Trade Association board of directors.

When those five people join the incumbent board members, the most significant item on their to-do list will likely be the selection of a new president.

Although Jeff Thomas, CEO of World Fantasy Games (which owns this site), ran for re-election to the board in this round, he is done with the Association’s lead role.

Here’s what the departing president has to say about his time in the FSTA’s fictional Oval Office:

“I believe turnover at the top every three years is healthy for the Association and the industry. From the beginning, I’ve pushed for a regular three-year term for FSTA presidents. My term has been enjoyable, educational, fulfilling and eye opening on many levels.

“The relationships I’ve built with other board members are lifelong and that means a lot to me. From a business perspective, fantasy is definitely going global and I saw it first hand with endless inbound emails from students and entrepreneurs from every corner of the world. The industry has grown 20% to 25% annually in North America, for four years straight, and that will continue as more companies start offering fantasy games across the world.

“We’ve been able to accomplish a lot in three years. The FSTA board is now a working board, with expectations of every member. They must work actively on a committee and attend meetings or they are asked to step down. This simple level of expectation has really strengthened the board and has increased our productivity as a group.

“We have operated successful FSTA-owned conferences in Chicago, Denver, Chicago again and Tampa … all delivering excellent cash flow to the non-profit FSTA. The funds have allowed us to hire an Association manager, Justin Cleveland, to improve member communication, to fund industry legal battles, to be the voice of fantasy sports to the outside world, and to develop a new web site, which will be rolling out soon.

“Overall, it’s been a great time with many great accomplishments.”

Tags: fantasy sports, fantasy sports business, fantasy sports industry, fsta, jeff thomas, world fantasy games

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 9:07 pm and is filed under Lead Stories, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.