Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

Curriculum Vitae: Hubert Joly

MINNEAPOLIS – Best Buy’s board was drawn to Hubert Joly for what the company describes as “a proven track record of successful turnarounds and growth in various industries,” including media, technology and the service sector.

A native Parisian, Joly is a graduate of École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris (HEC Paris) and of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.

From 1983 to 1996 he worked for McKinsey & Co. in the consultancy’s Paris, New York and San Francisco offices, assisting clients in high tech, financial services and luxury businesses.

From 1996 to 1999 Joly led the turnaround of Electronic Data Systems (EDS), which has since been acquired by Hewlett-Packard. During that period he boosted rapidly declining revenues more than 60 percent, from 1.3 billion francs to 2.1 billion francs, while significantly increasing profit margin.

From there he went on to head the restructuring and growth of Vivendi’s video game business, now a part of Activision Blizzard. During his three years there, from 1999 to 2001, the unit developed a significant online presence with first the “Diablo II” and then the “World of Warcraft” titles. He later oversaw the integration of Universal and Vivendi’s U.S. media assets, and was part of the team that led the successful restructuring of Vivendi itself between 2002 and 2004, Best Buy said.

From 2004 to 2008 Joly served as CEO of Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), a travel and meetingsand events service provider for businesses and government. During his tenure there sales more than tripled, from $8 billion to $25 billion annually.

In 2008 Joly was appointed CEO of Carlson, a global hospitality and travel company that operates TGI Fridays and the Radisson hotel chain. As chief executive he developed and led the implementation of a comprehensive strategic plan, dubbed Ambition 2015, which would be the template for his “Renew Blue” blueprint for Best Buy. Like Renew Blue, the Carlson program was designed to strengthen the company’s leadership across its businesses, reposition its core brands, enhance customer experience initiatives, make additional investments in, and reap greater revenue from, its online operations, and expand in key emerging markets worldwide.

Joly was named president/CEO of Best Buy in August 2012, and the following month spent his first week on the job working as a “Blue Shirt” sales associate at headquarters-area stores.

In addition to his management roles, Joly was elected a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum (Davos, 1997-1999) and is a knight in the French National Order of Merit. He also serves on the boards of Ralph Lauren Corp., the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), the Carlson School of Management, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and on the executive committee of the Minnesota Business Partnership.

Featured

Close