Barnes & Noble has gone outside and hired a non-book CEO to replace Michael Huseby, who’s moving to run the college store division when it spins off at the end of August (see “B&N Spinning Off College Stores”).  The new CEO is Ronald Boire, who will take over on September 8.  Boire has a broad range of retail experience, especially in turnaround situations, but has product experience only in Barnes & Noble’s secondary categories. 

Boire is moving to B&N from his current position as the head of Sears Canada.  In addition to time at Sears, Boire was the CEO at Brookstone, President at Toys R Us, the top merchant at Best Buy, and President of Sony’s Audio and Mobile Electronics division. 

Barnes & Noble’s book business is challenging, and its other categories growing; B&N’s toy and game business grew 16% in an otherwise down year in its recently completed fiscal year, according to the Wall Street Journal.