Best Buy Chairman throws the towel

According to a press release, this change (editor’s note: which comes only two months after Brian Dunn’s departure as Best Buy CEO) reflects an acceleration of the timing of the planned leadership transition. Last month, the board announced that Tyabji would succeed Schulze as Chairman with Schulze assuming the honorary position of Founder and Chairman Emeritus at the annual meeting on June 21, 2012. Schulze was still expected to serve out the remainder of his term as director through June 2013.

Best Buy said Schulze is an iconic entrepreneur, and the Board offered its deep appreciation for his enormous contributions and service as Best Buy’s founder and chairman. After founding the company, Schulze, who holds 20.1 percent of the Best Buy shares, built the company into a $50 billion enterprise with nearly 170,000 employees across the world.

Hatim A. Tyabji has more than 40 years of experience as a board member, operating executive and entrepreneur in various technology industry segments, including mobile communications, enterprise software, financial services and mainframe computing. Since 2001, he has been Chairman and CEO of Bytemobile, Inc., a global provider of video optimization and traffic management systems for mobile network operators. He is also chairman of Jasper Wireless, Inc., which provides operators with cloud-based machine-to-machine (M2M) and device management services, and serves on the boards of Merchant e-Solutions, Touch Networks (Australia) and the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.

In addition to chairing the Best Buy Audit Committee, Tyabji serves on the company’s Compensation and Human Resources Committee.