Hubert Joly


Hubert Joly is a businessman and Harvard business professor, who formerly served as executive chairman of Best Buy. He was the former president, CEO and director of Carlson, a global hospitality and travel conglomerate based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US.

Career

Joly left Vivendi in 2004 to become president and chief executive officer of CWT. In January 2008, Joly was announced president and CEO of Carlson Companies, an American privately held international conglomerate in the hotel, travel and restaurant franchise industries employing more than 175,000 people in more than 160 countries and territories. He took the positions in March 2008 as a replacement for Marilyn Carlson Nelson, daughter of the founder Curt Carlson. Under his leadership, CWT grew its annual sales from US$8.9 billion in 2003 to $25.5 billion in 2007.
On August 17, 2012, Joly resigned from his position with Carlson to take the position of CEO at Best Buy. Under Joly and his Renew Blue transformation at Best Buy, the company's stock tripled in 2013 with the focus on banking on big box stores, superior customer service, product selection, and services like the Geek Squad. According to The New York Times, Joly's top goal is matching the lowest price, determined to make sure that a customer who came to Best Buy as a showroom has no reason to buy anywhere else. "The strategy is very simple,” he told the New York Times in 2012, soon after he took the job. “We believe that price-competitiveness is table stakes. The way we want to win is around the advice, convenience, service.”
On January 20, 2017, a report in the Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico stated Joly was being considered for the CEO post at Carrefour. Joly issued a statement: “There have been reports that I am being considered for a CEO role at another company. Let me be clear, I am fully committed to Best Buy’s continued transformation and have absolutely no plans to leave.”
Joly stepped down as CEO of Best Buy in June 2019 to become executive chairman of the company. On March 12, 2020, he announced that he will resign of his executive chairman position in June 2020.

Additional roles

In addition to his current position as Best Buy’s chairman, he serves on the board of directors for Best Buy and Ralph Lauren. Joly also serves on the board of overseers of the Carlson School of Management, and the executive committee of the Minnesota Business Partnership. He is also a member and former chair of the board of trustees of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and a member of the board of directors of the Minnesota Orchestra.
He formerly served as a member of the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, established in 2003 to advise the United States Department of Commerce, as well as the executive committee of the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Joly has also made public speeches, including his appearance at the Minnesota Student Association's 3rd Annual Leadership reception on February 9, 2013, and as Harvard Business School Executive Education guest speaker.

Honors

Joly was elected a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum and honored as one of the 25 Most Influential Executives of the Business Travel Industry by Business Travel News magazine. He is voted #74 on 2018 Top 100 Highest Rated CEOs on Glassdoor, moving up from #77 in 2017. In 2018, Joly was named one of the "Best CEOs In The World" by the CEOWORLD magazine.
Joly is a Knight in the French National Order of Merit and in 2017 he was further awarded the French National Order of the Legion of Honour, the highest decoration in France for civil merit.