He couldn’t stay away from games for long! After retiring his throne as Nintendo of America President last year, Reggie Fils-Aimé has rejoined the gaming industry as part of GameStop’s board of directors. He is one of three people the struggling company brought on to help breathe new life into the business. Fils-Aimé is joined by Bill Simon and J.K. Symancyk. Simon is a 30 year veteran of the retail industry, with experience across a number of executive roles. Symancyk is the current president and chief executive at PetSmart. Both have proven track records of taking floundering businesses and righting the ship. Along with Fils-Aimé’s expertise in the gaming sector, GameStop hopes this new board can reinvigorate confidence in the company.
GameStop chief executive George Sherman commented on the additions to the board of directors:
The board refreshment and governance enhancements announced today represent an important milestone in GameStop’s transformation as we continue to evolve the company’s business strategy for long-term success. We are pleased to welcome Reggie, Bill, and J.K. to the board. They are each highly qualified and bring significant, relevant experience to our turnaround. We look forward to immediately benefitting from their expertise and perspectives as we navigate the evolving gaming and retail environments, execute on our strategic initiatives and prepare the Company to maximize value-creation associated with the next generation of console launches later this year.
Earlier this month, it was reported that GameStop was making additional layoffs to its stores around the country—specifically district managers—in an attempt to cut costs. February held reports of employees saying that pressure to meet sales targets was high as the company attempted to fix the major downturn in profits it’s seen in recent years.
The addition of Fils-Aimé, Simon, Symancyk comes as four other board members leave. Dan DeMatteo, Gerald Szczepanski, Larry Zilavy, and Steve Koonin have all stepped away from their roles on the GameStop board of directors. Reggie’s appointment will be effective April 20, 2020, and the resignation of the four outgoing board members goes into effect in June.
[Source: GamesBeat]
