Best Buy names external search for CFO as Matt Bilunas exits in July

Best Buy is replacing its chief financial officer from outside the company as Matt Bilunas prepares to leave on July 31. The Minneapolis retailer said it has hired an external search firm and wants a successor with prior CFO experience, a sign the finance seat remains tied closely to pricing, inventory and cost control.

Bilunas joined Best Buy in 2006 and became CFO in 2019. His exit comes as the company is already managing a broader leadership shuffle: Jason Bonfig is set to become chief executive on Nov. 1, while Corie Barry will step down as CEO and leave the board at the end of the third quarter on Oct. 31. Barry previously served as Best Buy’s CFO from 2016 to 2019, which gives the company an internal fallback on financial oversight during the handoff.

The timing matters because Best Buy is not operating from a position of distress. In its first quarter of fiscal 2027, comparable sales rose 2.0 percent, adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 11 percent to $1.28, and the company reiterated full-year adjusted diluted EPS guidance of $6.30 to $6.60. That kind of operating backdrop gives the chain room to manage succession without the kind of crisis pressure that often forces rushed decisions elsewhere in retail.

For Big Lots workers, the larger lesson is not about one executive’s departure so much as what finance leadership can change below the corporate level. Big Lots filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Sept. 9, 2024, after disclosing on Aug. 2 that amended loan terms could allow as many as 315 store closures, up from an earlier cap of 150. The company later agreed to sell itself to Nexus Capital Management for about $760 million, then moved toward liquidation after the deal fell through.

At the time of the bankruptcy filing, Big Lots had more than 1,300 stores in 48 states and about 27,700 employees. Later plans pointed to closing all remaining stores, roughly 960 locations. That is why a CFO change at a competitor still matters on the sales floor: finance leaders influence how much gets spent on inventory, how hard a chain presses on labor, and how long management can keep a turnaround alive before closures become the plan.