Business

Dick’s Sporting Goods Billionaire Edward Stack Stepping Down As CEO

NC Desk November 24, 2020

Topline

The billionaire CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Edward Stack, will step down in February after a 37-year run in which he built the company from two small stores he and his siblings bought from their father into an 850-store chain that went public in 2002.

Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack on October 8, 2019.

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Key Facts

He’ll be succeeded by Lauren R. Hobart, who joined as chief marketing officer in 2011 and ascended to president and board member in 2017, spearheading the company’s marketing and e-commerce strategies.

Stack will remain with the company as executive chairman and chief merchant.

The announcement of the change at the top comes as Dick’s Sporting Goods reported its revenue grew 22.9% to $2.41 billion in the quarter that ended October 31 compared to the same quarter a year before, bolstered by a 95% increase in e-commerce sales, and its net income increased 207.6% to $177.2 million.

Big Number

$1.1 billion. That is Stack’s net worth, Forbes estimates. Stack held more than 2 million shares on April 13, making him by far the largest stockholder, according to the company’s 2020 annual report.

Tangent

Stack has taken a strong stance on gun control. After the deadly shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, Dick’s stopped selling guns to anyone under 21 and stopped selling assault-style weapons in all its stores. Under Stack’s leadership, the company went further a year later, announcing it would stop selling guns in 125 of its stores, even though Stack in part attributed decreased sales to losing favor with gun enthusiasts.