GameStop is looking for a new CEO after less than two years with its current leader

• GameStop is looking for a new CEO, according to three sources who spoke to Reuters.
• The company is in the middle of major changes led by activist investor Ryan Cohen.
• Current CEO George Sherman has been with the company for less than two years.
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Video game retail giant GameStop is looking for a new chief executive to replace George Sherman as it pivots from being a brick-and-mortar video game retailer to an e-commerce firm, three people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

It would be the biggest shakeup at GameStop since Ryan Cohen, the co-founder and former chief executive of online pet food company Chewy, joined its board in January.

GameStop’s board is working with an executive headhunter on the CEO search, the sources said, requesting anonymity because the matter is confidential.

The executive shakeup at the ailing video game retailer comes amid a company-wide “transformation” overseen by board chairman and activist investor Ryan Cohen.

After taking a 12.9% stake last year through his investment firm RC Ventures, Cohen has made major changes at GameStop. First, he oversaw a string of C-suite departures and hirings. Then, he was appointed leader of a new committee overseeing a company-wide “transformation.”

That transformation has led to major changes in the company’s executive suite and its board.

Current CEO George Sherman is the only remaining executive from before Cohen got involved with the company. Jim Bell, the company’s CFO, is said to have been pushed to resign by the company’s board. Soon after, CCO Frank Hamlin resigned.

Similarly, the board has seen major changes – Cohen and two of his former colleagues from Chewy, the company he cofounded and ran, occupy three of the board’s five seats. New board members from Cohen’s past are expected to be elected at an annual company meeting in June, where Cohen will also become chairman of the board.

A GameStop spokesman declined to comment.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Dan Grebler)