Nook business future rests on new CEO at Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble has finally found itself a new chief executive officer, promoting a prominent figure already well established within the company.
Michael P. Huseby has been appointed CEO, effectively immediately. Huseby joined B&N not too long ago back in 2012 as chief financial officer. He was promoted to the role of President in July 2013.
Around that same time, then-CEO William Lynch resigned, sparking a major management shuffle that divided leadership up along the digital Nook unit and brick-and-mortar retail lines.
Suffice to say, a lot of hopes for the future of the flailing book retailer rest on Huseby.
The Nook brand launched under Lynch's watch. While the brand flourished initally and remained neck-in-neck with Amazon for a short time, the e-book reader and tablet series just hasn't been able to keep up with the likes of the Kindle and iPad, among other devices, and their respective digital bookstores.
Barnes & Noble has taken considerable steps to try and catch up to Amazon, Apple, and Google, which in part was demonstrated by that executive shake-up a few months ago.
However, Huseby will be responsible for overseeing just about everything as Barnes & Noble tries to find its way back to the top.
Mitchell Klipper, CEO of the Retail Group, and Max Roberts, CEO of Barnes & Noble College, will report to Huseby. Huseby, himself, will report to the Board of Directors and has been elected to serve on the Board.
Leonard Riggio, Chairman of Barnes & Noble, admitted in the announcement that Huseby's experience in the retail book business is rather limited still, but he touted Huseby's "passion" and "comprehensive understanding of the unique opportunities and challenges the Company faces."
Most of the points on Huseby's resume prior to Barnes & Noble were centered in the communications field.
He served as executive vice president and CFO at Cablevision between 2004 to 2011, also serving on the media company's board from 2000 to 2011. Huseby also held leadership positions at Charter Communications and AT&T Broadband, before the latter of which was sold to Comcast in 2002.
Image via Barnes & Noble