Denise Karkos spent decades in finance and media marketing before eCommerce at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Now she is taking that playbook into football retail at PE-backed Unisport, reporting to two CEOs at once.
Unisport, the football focused retail and content company combining omnichannel commerce, media and software, has named Denise Karkos as its Global Chief Marketing Officer, the company announced on July 27, 2026. Based in Taunton, Massachusetts, Karkos will lead both Unisport’s global marketing function and its North America marketing organization, overseeing brand marketing, content, social and influencer strategy, creative, data and analytics, market intelligence, and strategic partnerships.
Karkos reports to Michael O’Connor, Unisport’s North America CEO, with a dotted line to Global CEO Joris Van Rooy: the structure reflects the company’s split between a US commercial base and international headquarters in Poland and Denmark.
The appointment comes as Unisport, backed by Innova Capital, the private equity firm focused on mid sized companies in Central Europe, says it is accelerating international expansion and consumer connection in soccer under Karkos’s leadership.
Karkos joins with more than 30 years of marketing and ecommerce leadership experience. They have held chief marketing officer roles at TD Ameritrade and at SiriusXM and Pandora, and most recently served as Chief Ecommerce Officer at Dick’s Sporting Goods, where they worked on customer experience and omnichannel revenue growth. O’Connor said Karkos’s experience helping to scale iconic consumer brands informed the decision to bring them into the role.
