Best Buy names veteran Jason Bonfig CEO, signaling operational focus

Best Buy is handing the top job to a leader who started in the stockroom logic of retail, not the boardroom polish of branding. Jason Bonfig will succeed Corie Barry as chief executive officer on Oct. 31, while Barry steps down from the CEO role and the board at the end of the third quarter and stays on as a strategic adviser for six months.

For Target employees watching a fellow Twin Cities retailer, the signal is clear: Best Buy is elevating an operator whose career runs through merchandising, ecommerce, supply chain and customer execution. Bonfig, 49, joined Best Buy in 1999 as an inventory analyst and now serves as chief customer, product and fulfillment officer. He oversees merchandising, ecommerce, supply chain, marketing, Best Buy Canada and Best Buy Ads, and he led the creation of the company’s U.S. online Marketplace.

That matters in Minneapolis because Best Buy and Target compete in the same regional labor market and chase the same consumer dollars. When a major retailer chooses a leader with deep control over product flow and fulfillment, it underscores where the pressure sits on the floor: getting inventory right, keeping digital promises, and making stores work as part of an omnichannel machine. For Target teams, it is another reminder that operational discipline is no longer a back-end function. It is the business.

The board framed the move as a continuation rather than a reset. David Kenny, chair of the Best Buy board, said the board believes Bonfig is the right leader to accelerate the business and create meaningful growth. Bonfig will also join the board when the transition becomes effective. Best Buy said Barry is its second-longest-tenured CEO, and Bonfig will become the company’s sixth CEO in its 60-year history.

Barry took over in June 2019 after holding senior roles tied to Best Buy’s Building the New Blue strategy. The handoff comes after a period of stabilization: Best Buy said comparable sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 rose 0.5 percent, the company’s first quarter of positive comparable sales growth since the third quarter of fiscal 2022. It reported adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.58 and GAAP diluted EPS of $0.54 for the quarter, and projected fiscal 2026 adjusted diluted EPS of $6.20 to $6.60.

For Target, the broader read is not about Best Buy’s internal succession alone. It is about what another Minneapolis retailer is rewarding now: leaders who can keep product moving, online orders flowing and customer experience tight enough to survive a volatile consumer market.