GameStop names Buskey president

Former GameStop Senior Vice President of Human Resource Mike Buskey was elevated to the role of president of U.S. stores to oversee GameStop’s more than 2,000 locations.

Buskey is a retail industry veteran who joined GameStop in 2010 as senior vice president of human resources after holding that same title at The Home Depot. He fills a position previously occupied by Tony Bartel who in mid-January was named chief operating officer with continued oversight of the stores organization, merchandising and supply chain in addition to pre-owned and technology brands businesses and real estate.

In a statement, GameStop said Buskey’s senior leadership experience includes a unique blend of operations and human resources which has allowed him to create strategic alliances throughout the organization to achieve better business results.

Buskey also held operations roles at Oshman Sporting Goods, Circuit City and Wherehouse Entertainment. Buskey had an unconventional start to his retail career. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of San Francisco and then spent spent eight years as a professional baseball player, finishing his career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1978.

His promotion at GameStop follows a respectable showing from the specialty retailer during a holiday season in which the company faced significant competitive pressures.

The company’s total global sales for the nine week holiday period ended Jan. 3, declined 6.7% to $2.94 billion. Sales declined 4% on a constant currency basis. Same store sales declined 3.1% as the company was up against challenging prior year comparisons when there were major new gaming console launches in November 2013. Same store sales of hardware declined 32%, but were offset by a 94.4% increase in gaming software which enabled the company to affirm its fourth quarter profitability forecast.