GameStop Searches For More Digital-Friendly CEO

GameStop is searching for a new CEO, seeking to switch from a brick-and-mortar video game retailer into an eCommerce outlet as the times shift, Reuters reported.

This is set to be the biggest shift in the company since Ryan Cohen, co-founder and ex-CEO of online pet food company Chewy, joined GameStop’s board in January, according to Reuters. Cohen has begun laying down a new plan for a shift in culture and strategy. Last week, he was named GameStop’s board chairman.

The company’s stock is up around 4,000 percent from last year since the company became the figurehead of the “meme stock” incident earlier this year, with retail investors boosting the price and disrupting the market, betting against rich hedge funds, Reuters reported.

GameStop’s board is working with an executive headhunter to find its new CEO, according to Reuters, and several board members have spoken with people in the industries of gaming, eCommerce and technology.

The replacement of the CEO is just the newest fix Cohen is trying to impose on the company since he joined, Reuters reported. Former Chief Financial Officer Jim Bell and former Chief Customer Officer Frank Hamlin have both left the company in recent weeks.

Former CEO George Sherman had been in his position since April 2019. He was given credit internally for cutting the budgets and helping the company through the pandemic, Reuters reported. Sherman’s experience, though, was only with brick-and-mortar companies, including Advance Auto Parts and The Home Depot. That made his experience less relevant to the digital experiment.

GameStop also appointed Elliott Wilke as its new chief growth officer as of late March, and in that job he’ll focus on expanding customer loyalty and boosting the reach of the company’s Power Up Rewards and Game Informer.

Wilke will be overseeing other executive programs, including growing GameStop’s use of shopper analysis and data points to help make the best of channel marketing.