Minneapolis — Best Buy Co., Inc. has appointed Hatim A. Tyabji as chairman. The transition follows the abrupt announcement that Founder and Chairman Richard Schulze would be resigning immediately.
Minneapolis — The board of directors of Best Buy Co., Inc. has appointed Hatim A. Tyabji as chairman of the company, effective immediately. Tyabji, currently chairman of the audit committee, has served as a director since 1998.
This change reflects an acceleration of the timing of the planned leadership transition. Last month, the board announced that Tyabji would succeed Richard Schulze as chairman and Schulze would assume the honorary position of founder and chairman emeritus at the annual meeting on June 21, 2012. Schulze was still expected to serve out the remainder of his term as director through June 2013.
However, Schulze notified the board on June 7, 2012 of his decision to resign from the board, including the chairmanship, effective immediately. Schulze built Best Buy into a $50 billion enterprise with nearly 170,000 employees across the world.
Tyabji has more than 40 years of experience as a board member, operating executive and entrepreneur in various technology industry segments, including mobile communications, enterprise software, financial services and mainframe computing.
Since 2001, Tyabji has been chairman and CEO of Bytemobile, Inc., a leading global provider of video optimization and traffic management systems for mobile network operators.
Best Buy Co., Inc. is a global retailer and developer of technology products and services. For more information, visit www.bby.com.