FC Cincinnati have promoted Jeff Berding to co-CEO alongside controlling owner Carl Lindner III, the club announced Tuesday.
Lindner and Berding will continue to share organizational control and overall leadership of FC Cincinnati, with the latter also serving as president of FC Cincinnati Holdings by overseeing the entire sporting and development enterprise.
Berding has served as FCC’s president since the club’s founding in 2015. Last year, the club opened TQL Stadium.
“Now that we have opened our world-class stadium and begin our move to the next chapter of FC Cincinnati, I felt the time was right to award Jeff Berding a promotion. As co-CEOs, Jeff and I will be better able to handle the expanded areas of enterprise work resulting from the growth of the club,” Lindner III said in a release. “I do not feel the title of team president for Jeff sufficiently addressed his leadership position, which the FC Cincinnati Holdings president/team co-CEO title more accurately provides and better defines his co-executive leadership of the enterprise with me.”
With Berding’s promotion, FC Cincinnati will now hire a new team president. That process will be led by Sportsology’s Mike Forde.
“The opportunity for a new president is being considered because the growth of the team’s enterprise work is substantial,” Berding said in a release. “We have a great staff at FCC and I look forward to adding another key executive.”
The Orange & Blue joined MLS as an expansion team in 2019. Their sporting side enters 2022 with new leadership in general manager Chris Albright and head coach Pat Noonan, both of whom were previously with the Philadelphia Union.
