Best Buy Names Hubert Joly New CEO

Best Buy made the hire after former CEO Brian Dunn was forced out after a sex scandal in April

Best Buy named Hubert Joly its new CEO Monday amid a major shakeup as founder Richard Schulze attempts to buy back the ailing business.

Joly has 15 years of experience working with media and technology companies — boosting revenue at video game giant Activision Blizzard and information technology firm EDS and grew Carlson Wagonlit Travel to a robust hospitality business.

The hire comes as Best Buy looks to reinvent itself as Schulze offers to buy back the company with his own money. Best Buy's business model has been disrupted by the rise of internet shopping, often relegating it to a showroom before customers purchase their electronics and media at better prices online.

Also read: Best Buy Founder Richard Schulze Offers to Buy Out Ailing Company

Joly will also serve as president and as a member of the board of directors.

"Hubert was an outstanding candidate for this position and I am confident he will be a great fit for Best Buy," Hatim Tyabji, the chairman of the board, said in a statement. "Hubert's range and depth of experience in transforming companies is exactly what the company needs at the moment, as is his energetic, imaginative and experienced leadership in executing strategies."

Joly is expected to assume his new role as president and CEO on the Minneapolis-based company in early September, when the French executive's visa is secured.

Joly will succeed G. Mike Mikan, a member of the board who has served as interim CEO since April when Dunn was forced out after he was alleged to have had a sexual relationship with a female employee.

Earlier this month, Schulze made the largest buyout offer in history — $8.8 billion — to take the company private. His offer topped the $8.4 billion buyout of Toys "R" Us in 2005.

Best Buy lost $1.7 billion in the first quarter, and it unveiled an $800 million cost cutting program that shuttered 50 stores and cut 400 jobs.

Comments