Wanted: A disciplined operator to handle “personal and household” matters for GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen.
A recent GameStop job listing seeks a private project manager to “plan and execute personal and household projects for a senior executive,” which Business Insider confirmed refers to Cohen.
The role includes a section on “Renovations, Relocations & Property Projects.” The GameStop employee will oversee Cohen’s property improvements and assist him with moving between properties. They will also coordinate with designers, architects, and the Home Owner and Condo Owner Associations. Other tasks include managing vendors, budgets, and planning events.
The roll requires “24/7 responsiveness to urgent needs and timeline shifts.” No salary expectation is listed.
It’s one of three job listings posted on April 30 to GameStop’s careers page that would help Cohen manage his day-to-day.
The second is for a “personal assistant and household operations coordinator.” This individual will manage Cohen’s personal life, including booking family travel — on commercial or private airlines — and running errands. The third is for an “executive and personal project manager.”
The roles are based in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area, where Cohen is based.
When reached for comment, GameStop said that Cohen would pay for all three of the roles “out of pocket.”
“I pay my personal assistant out of my own pocket which by the way is unlike most CEO’s,” Cohen said in a statement to Business Insider.
GameStop and its CEO are back in the headlines after its unsolicited proposal to acquire the much larger eBay. Cohen appeared on CNBC for an awkward, combative interview. Meme stock traders cheered Cohen on.
While Cohen says he plans to pay personally, the positions are listed through GameStop’s job board.
Anthony Capozzolo, a former federal prosecutor and current partner at Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss, said that the listings were “symptomatic of how high-level executives now get treated in the corporate world.”
“Everything is their business life,” Capozzolo said.
Capozzolo said it was “odd” that the job listings don’t make clear the positions are funded by Cohen.
“It looks like the company is hiring this person,” Capozzolo said. “Normally he would do this himself. Why is the company getting involved?”
When Stoltmann Law securities attorney Andrew Stoltmann first saw the job listings, he said that they were likely to raise eyebrows.
“You don’t see this all that often, but if it’s fully disclosed, then there probably isn’t much of an issue,” Stoltmann said. “But, I can promise you, this would make shareholders pretty uncomfortable.”
When Stoltmann later learned that Cohen said he would pay for the positions out of pocket, he said it was likely “kosher” and “not much of an issue.”
“It’s still pretty surprising to see the company soliciting candidates,” Stoltmann said.
Read the full article here
