Dive Brief:
- GameStop Chief Operating Officer Jenna Owens has left the company, according to a securities filing.
- The company and Owens, a former Amazon executive who joined GameStop in March, entered into a separation and release agreement, effective as of Oct. 25. GameStop didn't disclose a reason for her departure.
- Owens will receive six months of base pay and the remaining chunk of her sign-on bonus. The COO's duties will be absorbed by other members of GameStop management, the company said without elaborating.
Dive Insight:
GameStop has already been through a significant executive shakeup this year that began with Ryan Cohen's appointment to the board in January, following the Chewy founder's purchase of an activist stake in the gaming retailer.
Not long after Cohen joined the board, GameStop's chief financial officer left. A smattering of hires was announced, including Owen, who had previously been director and general manager for distribution and multi-channel fulfillment at Amazon. Along with Owen, GameStop brought on former Chewy executive Neda Pacifico as senior vice president of e-commerce and Ken Suzuki, previously with Zulily, as vice president of supply chain systems.
The company also added a chief growth officer (Elliott Wilke, another Amazon vet), vice president of brand development (Andrea Wolfe) and vice president of merchandising (Tom Petersen). The latter two were both Chewy vets.
The company announced in April then-CEO George Sherman would leave, just days after GameStop signaled Cohen would become board chairman. The company would go on to tap former Amazon executives to fill its CEO and CFO slots.
Since Cohen has taken over as chair, the company has said little about its forward-looking strategy. As an activist investor, he agitated for the company to accelerate a digital pivot and to think of itself as a tech company. In lieu of a publicly released plan, outsiders have to rely on the company's hires to try to predict where it is going. Those hires, unsurprisingly, show a focus on e-commerce at GameStop, as well as supply chain.
On paper those sound like smart moves, and in line with where much of the retail world is making investments currently. But left unanswered is what becomes of GameStop as more games become digitized and game labels go direct to consumer. It is a question that has haunted the retailer's very existence for years.
If Cohen and the new leadership team has an answer, they are keeping it close to the chest. Executives haven't been taking questions on earnings calls this year. On the company's most recent call, new CEO Matt Furlong discussed the company's efforts to speed shipping times and expand its distribution capacity, including through a new fulfillment facility in Reno, Nevada, as well as the company's expansion into toys and other categories.
The company is also currently hiring leaders to build out crypto and NFT products, and who can do nothing short of "help accelerate the future of gaming and commerce," according to job posts.
