$GME GameStop Corp. said it is nominating Chewy Inc. co-founder Ryan Cohen as its chairman at the company's annual meeting in June, as the videogame retailer continues its turnaround.
Mr. Cohen , who joined the board earlier this year with two former colleagues, had urged the company to focus on e- commerce and reduce store count, among other initiatives. The company is now working to transform its decades-old bricks-and-mortar business to become more technology-centric.
Mr. Cohen holds a 12.9% stake in the company through his investment firm RC Ventures LLC , according to a January disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission . In becoming chairman, he would succeed Kathy Vrabeck , who isn't standing for reelection.
The Grapevine, Texas -based company has been shuffling its management ranks and is in the process of retooling its board, as the majority of directors have informed the company that they plan to step down from the panel later this year. Earlier this month, the company said Chris Homeister , the merchandising chief, plans to resign due to his diminished responsibilities. GameStop has hired several executives from Amazon.com Inc. and Chewy for top posts.
On Thursday, GameStop said it would reduce individual director compensation by about 28% from the prior year after the June 9 annual meeting.
New board nominees include Larry Cheng , the co-founder and managing partner of Volition Capital and the first investor in Chewy, and Yang Xu , a finance executive at Kraft Heinz Co., the company said.
GameStop said it is also nominating existing board members Alan Attal , a former Chewy chief marketing officer, and Chief Executive George Sherman . Jim Grube , one of the nominees and an existing board member, has been appointed to serve on the strategic planning and capital allocation committee, the company said. Mr. Grube was previously the finance chief of vacation-rental management company Vacasa LLC and Chewy.
The company's board last month tapped Mr. Cohen to lead a committee dedicated to transforming the retailer. The move came as the company faces pressure to deliver results that measure up to its recently inflated share price that was driven up by a Reddit-fueled trading frenzy.
GameStop's stock traded under $3 apiece in April last year as the pandemic prompted the temporary closure of the company's bricks-and-mortar locations. The shares ended 2020 at just below $19 .
In GameStop's most recent quarter, which included the holiday-shopping season, sales fell slightly from a year earlier as coronavirus-related closings weighed on its operations. The company, however, has since pointed to improving sales trends. Mr. Sherman , the CEO, has said GameStop will benefit from initiatives such as expanding its product selection to make it less dependent on the releases of new gaming consoles from the likes of Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp.
Earlier this week, the company said it could raise hundreds of millions of dollars from stock sales of up to 3.5 million shares, adding that the timing and size of any stock sale would involve various factors.
Raised in Montreal , the 35-year-old co-founded the online pet-products retailer Chewy in 2011. After visiting his neighborhood pet store to buy products for his teacup poodle Tylee, Mr. Cohen set out to replicate the warm, knowledgeable customer service online. He served as its chief executive through 2018 after leading the company to a sale to PetSmart Inc.
Mr. Cohen has said he doesn't consider himself an activist investor and acknowledged GameStop has benefited as the health crisis has led to increased demand for videogames.
