GameStop CEO George Sherman, Keith Gill (AKA Roaring Kitty), and Ryan Cohen
Here are 3 mini-profiles of notable individuals who will certainly feature in the inevitable GameStop movie:
George Sherman, GameStop CEO
In April 2019, George Sherman left Victra — an exclusive Verizon Wireless reseller — to take the top job at GameSpot. Sherman is a retail veteran with leadership stints at Advance Auto Parts, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Target.
According to Fortune, Sherman received a relatively low CEO salary to join ($1m a year) but was awarded 2m+ in share grants and options. Those shares were initially valued at $10.5m but — as of Friday — were worth $900m+.
Due to share restrictions and vesting schedules, Sherman is probably not able to unload much of that paper wealth.
Keith Gill, the Redditor leading the charge
Known on r/WallStreetBets as u/DeepF******Value (and on his YouTube financial channel as Roaring Kitty), Keith Gill is the man who started the $GME craze, per Reuters.
The 34-year old Gill lives in Boston and formerly worked at insurance firm MassMutual as a financial advisor. He made his initial $53k bet on $GME in September 2019, and the position is now worth ~$48m.
The SEC is looking into whether laws were broken over the course of Gill’s work. Securities attorneys tell Reuters that “if Gill simply invested in and advocated for his position because he believed in the company, that he had nothing to fear.”
Ryan Cohen, the billionaire founder of Chewy
In 2017, Ryan Cohen sold his pet startup Chewy to PetSmart for $3.4B. He famously invested much of his wealth in Apple and Wells Fargo.
Cohen made a much different bet in August 2020, when he opened a position in $GME, believing his ecommerce expertise could turn around the ailing video game retailer.
He owns 12.9% of the company from a total $76m investment. As of Friday evening, that stake is worth $2.9B.
