Ronald "Ron" D. Boire is an American businessman. He has served as an executive for several companies, including

Sony Electronics , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

, Best Buy and CEO roles with

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

Brookstone Brookstone is a chain of retail stores in the United States and China. It was founded as a mail-order business in 1965, when it started selling items, such as dental clamps and other specialty tools. Its first physical location opened in 1973 i ...

Sears Canada Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as Simpsons-Sears� ...

Early life and career

Ron Boire grew up on a farm in upstate New York, where he helped out on the family property for $2/hour. Money was tight and hardcover books were a rare luxury. Boire got his start in sales at

, where he worked for seventeen years, during which time he was President of the Personal Mobile Products Company, President of the Consumer Sales Company, and a member of the Sony Electronics Executive Committee. Boire obtained MBAs from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and the

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...

in 2003. After graduation, Boire worked at

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

until 2006, serving on the Best Buy Executive Committee and as Executive Vice President, Global General Merchandise Manager. Boire then joined

Toys R Us A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include Toy block, toy blocks, Board game, board games, and Doll, dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed sp ...

. While at Toys "R" Us, Boire held positions as President, "R" Us Brands, President, Toys "R" Us, North America, Toys "R" Us .com and Toys "R" Us Canada. The team at Toys R Us was credited with executing a transformative turnaround while Boire was President. Boire was also an instrumental figure in a testing program that detected lead paint in toys imported from China, helping to preserve trust in toys licensed by brands such as

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

to third party manufacturers. In October 2009, Boire joined Brookstone as President and CEO. He became President, Sears and Kmart Formats and Chief Merchandising Officer for

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

in 2012. He was the President and CEO of Sears Canada from October 2014 to August 2015 and director at

Retail Council of Canada The Retail Council of Canada (french: Conseil canadien du commerce de détail), founded in 1963, is a not-for-profit trade association representing retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, ...

. Boire became CEO of Barnes & Noble in September 2015.

Personal life and interests

Boire married Faith Ferguson, a meeting and events planner based in Warwick, New York in 2010. The couple are co-founders of the Ferguson-Noonan Foundation, a 501(c)(3) corporation providing educational support to young people. In 2014, the couple purchased the Stagecoach Inn, a historic property dating from 1747 and spent a year lovingly restoring it. The Inn was named the best Old-World Style Inn in Hudson Valley Magazine in 2017 and received the Goshen Chamber of Commerce award as the 2017 Business of the Year. It has also repeatedly won "Diners Choice" recognition from OpenTable

References

Alumni of London Business School Columbia Business School alumni Living people 1961 births {{US-business-bio-1960s-stub