Minneapolis – Best Buy has instituted a sweeping reorganization of its management structure to supports its global strategy.
The company has created separate regional structures for The Americas, Europe and Asia, and has appointed new presidents to support them, including Mike Vitelli and Shari Ballard for the Western Hemisphere.
All report to CEO Brian Dunn.
Both Vitelli and Ballard will keep their prior posts, he as executive VP of the customer operating group, and she as executive VP of retail channels. In their added roles as president of the Americas and enterprise executive VPs, Vitelli will have additional responsibility for Canada, Ballard will oversee the company’s operations in Mexico, and both will jointly share leadership responsibility for the U.S.
Elsewhere, Scott Wheway will continue to run Best Buy’s European operation and joint venture with Carphone Warehouse in his current role as CEO of Best Buy Europe, and Kal Patel, executive VP of emerging businesses, was named president of Asia and enterprise executive VP. In his new post, Patel will have responsibility for Best Buy’s operations in China and Turkey and its Five Star retail chain in China.
Supporting them are six enterprise-wide functions including:
· Capabilities, led by chief administrative officer Tim Sheehan;
· Finance and marketing, led respectively by chief financial officer Jim Muehlbauer and chief marketing officer Barry Judge;
· IT and global Web, led respectively by chief information officer Neville Roberts and, on an interim basis, by Enterprise senior VP Sean Skelley, and;
· Operations and foundations, led respectively by business planning and operations VP Stacy Webb, and Susan Hoff, founder, chairman and CEO of Best Buy Children’s Foundation.
The reorganization was revealed through an internal announcement that was posted to Best Buy’s beta site
.
In a statement, Dunn noted that “Last summer we launched the ‘Path to the Connected World’ to position the enterprise for our next era of growth – an era in which we will operate as a globally-integrated enterprise, providing high-value connectivity products and services to consumers around the world.
“One key change we identified from the beginning was the need for a regional structure – with focused leadership and operations for the Americas, Europe and Asia – each supported by global capabilities. We are now ready to move to that structure.”
