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What a Best Buy CEO exit and a fresh start at Lululemon reveal about leading through volatility

Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
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Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
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April 23, 2026, 12:19 PM ET
Fortune's Emma Hinchliffe and Corie Barry, CEO of Best Buy, speak onstage during the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit 2025.
Fortune's Emma Hinchliffe and Corie Barry, CEO of Best Buy, speak onstage during the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit 2025.Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Fortune Media
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It was a big day yesterday for CEO changes. First, Best Buy announced the departure of CEO Corie Barry, who took over the electronics retailer seven years ago.

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My colleague Phil Wahba has a smart analysis of the arc of Barry’s tenure. Best Buy benefitted from the pandemic boom in home electronics; then came the bust. When she started as CEO in 2019, she announced a goal of reaching $50 billion in revenue by 2025. Best Buy actually hit that milestone early, during the pandemic—but its sales sit around $42 billion today. The retailer was one of the hardest hit by Trump’s tariff regime, thanks to the extremely complex global supply chain for consumer electronics.

While Barry’s comeback strategy didn’t last, and Best Buy is under pressure to rethink its approach, Barry’s impact is felt beyond the business she ran. Last year, she sat at No. 30 on the Fortune Most Powerful Women list; Best Buy is No. 108 on the Fortune 500. She was one of the first CEOs to speak in-depth on an earnings call about the impact of tariffs on her business, and helped people understand the rapidly changing economic impact during peak volatility. I’ve interviewed Barry onstage twice at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, and both times she’s left us with a deeper understanding of the macroeconomic climate—from coining the term “funflation” to describe the post-pandemic economy in 2023 (people weren’t shopping at Best Buy because they were buying Eras Tour tickets, essentially) to sharing in 2025 that a growing divide between the spending of high earners and the low-income was keeping her up at night as she thought about the health of the economy.

Meanwhile, another piece of news yesterday shows us what can come next for an exec after a high-profile departure. Heidi O’Neill, who was Nike’s president of consumer and marketplace as part of a 25-year career at the sports apparel giant, is becoming the CEO of Lululemon. Her exit from Nike was closely watched because it was part of Nike’s strategic reset as new CEO Elliott Hill implemented a turnaround strategy. When she left, her job was essentially split into three, between consumer and sport, marketing, and product creation.

O’Neill is taking over another complex job. Lululemon, like Nike, needs a turnaround. The brand’s vocal founder Chip Wilson and activists have both pushed for change. O’Neill will need to make a mark with her own strategy while deftly managing these stakeholders, who aren’t afraid to criticize current management in public.

It won’t be easy. But whether it’s managing through tariffs or turning around a brand that’s lost its way, women execs are often up for the challenge.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Subscribe here.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

Clara Shih is doing something about AI's impact on young workers. The former head of business AI at Meta, who announced she would leave that company late last year, is now launching the New Work Foundation. Its tools will help workers map their strengths and interests onto roles and explain how AI is affecting every profession. "Last fall, the AI agents my team deployed started really working, and I knew everything had changed," Shih wrote on LinkedIn. "Shortly after, my nieces, nephews, cousins– so many young people I know– started coming to me asking how to get hired in this market. It hit hard. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since." 

Meanwhile, the reaction to Reese Witherspoon is showing just how sensitive a topic AI still is. The actor and Hello Sunshine founder posted a video last week encouraging more women to use AI in their daily lives. "The jobs women hold are 3x more likely to be automated by AI, yet women are using AI at a rate 25% lower than men on average," she said, adding that she intended to learn as much as she could about the technology. "We don’t want to be left behind." She got some backlash to her post and had to clarify her comments: "I want to acknowledge people’s concerns, they are valid," she said. "I’m aware of the impact this could have on jobs across so many industries. I understand environmental concerns." 

The Gates Foundation commissioned an external investigation of its past engagement with Jeffrey Epstein. CEO Mark Suzman gave staff the update in a memo this week. Bill Gates is expected to testify before Congress in June about his relationship with the late sex offender.

ON MY RADAR

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PARTING WORDS

"I just knew that I wanted a big life, and that I wanted to be able to impact a lot of other people. And I think the young me has figured out how to do that, and I’m really proud of her."

— Elizabeth Banks on what drew her to acting. She's starring in The Miniature Wife on Peacock. 

This is the web version of MPW Daily, a daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
About the Author
Emma Hinchliffe
By Emma HinchliffeMost Powerful Women Editor
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Emma Hinchliffe is Fortune’s Most Powerful Women editor, overseeing editorial for the longstanding franchise. As a senior writer at Fortune, Emma has covered women in business and gender-lens news across business, politics, and culture. She is the lead author of the Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter (formerly the Broadsheet), Fortune’s daily missive for and about the women leading the business world.

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