Chewy Co-Founder Ryan Cohen Named GameStop Chairman

Chewy Co-founder Ryan Cohen will be appointed GameStop’s chairman of the board, which is expected to take place at the June 9 annual shareholder meeting, the company announced in a press release on Thursday (April 8).

Cohen, who manages the activist investment firm RC Ventures, invested in GameStop in 2020 in an effort to encourage the video game retailer to shutter unprofitable stores and focus on digital advancement. 

GameStop will also appoint Alan Attal, Larry Cheng, Jim Grube, George Sherman and Yang Xu to its board. Cheng, co-founder and managing partner of Volition Capital, was the first Chewy investor. Xu was senior vice president of The Kraft Heinz Company’s global finance sector. 

The gaming retailer saw volatile trading this year that sprung in part from the social media site Reddit, where short-sellers and new traders battled it out in an unprecedented series of events that saw share prices surge 850 percent. Currently, GameStop is trading at 60-plus percent lower than its peak in late January.

Cohen’s appointment is anticipated to help GameStop solidify and grow its online commerce operations. The other new appointments and hires include executives from Chewy and Amazon, which are also expected to help the company capitalize on the digital-first gaming and commerce environment.

Last month, GameStop named Elliott Wilke as its new chief growth officer to further assist the company in its digital transformation. He will oversee expansion strategies and marketing and will focus on enhancing customer loyalty and expanding the reach of Power Up Rewards and Game Informer. 

GameStop is also looking to issue 3.5 million new shares, which could bring the retailer more than $600 million at current prices. The company currently operates 4,200 stores in the U.S. and abroad. In the past six months, GameStop saw its share price surge from $5 per share to almost $200 each and its valuation top $13 billion.