Hubert Joly

Hubert Joly
Hubert Joly
Born	11 August 1959 (age 67); Nancy, France
Education	HEC Paris; Sciences Po
Occupation(s)	Harvard Business School Professor ; Former Chairman and CEO of Best Buy

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Hubert Joly, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 9 August 2025

Hubert Joly (born August 11, 1959) is a business executive and faculty member at Harvard Business School, known for his previous roles as chairman and CEO of Best Buy. He also held the positions of president, CEO, and director at Carlson Companies, a Minneapolis-based multinational hospitality and travel enterprise.

He completed his studies at both HEC Paris and Sciences Po Paris in 1983.

Career

In 2004, Joly departed from Vivendi to take on the role of president and CEO at CWT. By January 2008, he advanced to become president and CEO of Carlson Companies, a privately owned global conglomerate encompassing hotel, travel, and restaurant franchises with a workforce exceeding 175,000 employees worldwide. He took over leadership from Marilyn Carlson Nelson, daughter of the founder Curt Carlson. During his tenure, CWT's yearly revenue increased substantially from US$8.9 billion in 2003 to $25.5 billion by 2007.

On August 17, 2012, Joly left Carlson to assume the CEO position at Best Buy. His Renew Blue initiative was instrumental in tripling the company’s stock value in 2013 by emphasizing large-format retail outlets, superior customer service, expanded product offerings, and services such as Geek Squad. As reported by The New York Times, Joly focused on maintaining competitive pricing while enhancing advice, convenience, and service to effectively compete with online retailers.

In early 2017, rumors connected him with the CEO vacancy at Carrefour, but he confirmed his dedication to continuing Best Buy’s turnaround efforts.

Joly stepped down from his CEO role at Best Buy in June 2019 to become Executive Chairman. A year later, in June 2020, he transitioned from that position to join Harvard Business School as a Senior Lecturer in Business Administration. He remains an advisor to Best Buy’s CEO and Board of Directors.

He authored The Heart of Business: Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism, released by Harvard Business Review Press in May 2021. The book launched at number three on The Wall Street Journal's Business Bestseller List.

Additional roles

In addition to his academic duties at Harvard, Joly holds board memberships with Best Buy, Johnson & Johnson, and Ralph Lauren Corporation. He previously chaired the board of trustees for the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

His advisory roles have included participation on the Travel and Tourism Advisory Board for the US Department of Commerce and membership on the executive committee of the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Joly’s insights have been featured in media outlets including Fortune, CBS News, Inc., CNN Business, and CNBC.

Honors

Recognized as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum between 1997 and 1999, Joly was also named among the 25 Most Influential Executives in the Business Travel Industry by Business Travel News in both 2006 and 2009. On Glassdoor’s Top 100 Highest Rated CEOs list for 2018, he achieved #10 after ranking #77 in 2017. That same year, he earned distinctions such as one of the "Best CEOs In The World" by CEOWORLD magazine, inclusion among Barron's "World's Best CEOs," and recognition as one of the "Best-Performing CEOs" by Harvard Business Review.

He has been honored as a Knight of the French National Order of Merit and was awarded France’s premier civilian accolade—the Legion of Honour (Ordre national de la Légion d'Honneur)—in 2017.

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Career

Additional roles

Honors

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External links

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