Why Skills-First Leadership Is Replacing the Ivy League Playbook in the C-Suite
05/23/2025
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The old prestige pyramid—where Ivy League degrees and blue-chip consulting backgrounds paved the way to the CEO seat—is cracking.
February 3, 2023: On Sunday, Shares of Nordstrom flooded following news that activist investor and meme stock maven Ryan Cohen is bringing a stake in the high-end department store firm.
The stock was up 30% in premarket trading.
The Wall Street Journal has been citing people familiar with the matter, reported evening that Cohen was acquiring a “sizable stake” in Nordstrom’s looks to shake up its board. The Journal stated that Cohen is now one of Nordstrom’s top five nonfamily shareholders.
Nordstrom, for its part, stated that it was open to hearing Cohen out.
“While Mr Cohen has not sought any talks with us in many years, we are open to listening to his views, as we do with all Nordstrom shareholders,” the firm said in a statement. “We keep taking actions that we believe are in the company’s and our shareholders’ best interests.”
The news about Cohen comes weeks following Nordstrom, which has had to dramatically mark down costs to ease an inventory glut. It reported lacklustre holiday sales and cut its guidance for the year. The firm is set to report earnings on March 2.
Cohen has founded the pet retail and health site Chewy and is considered a champion of the meme stock people. He is the chairman of Reddit’s favourite GameStop. He also had a brief rally in Bed Bath & Beyond in the previous year before he ultimately dumped it out of stock. Bed Bath is anticipated to file for bankruptcy protection any day now.
Cohen appears to be aiming again at Mark Tritton, the former Target executive forced out as Bed Bath CEO the previous year as Cohen’s firm pressured struggles home goods retailer. Tritton has been on Nordstrom’s board for nearly years after working for the firm from 2009 to 2016.
According to the Journal, Cohen is thinking Tritton, due to his prior experience working at the companfirmldn’t be deciding on compensation for Nordstrom’s family members, who are executives at the retailer. Erik Nordstrom is the ‘s CEO, while Peter Nordstrom serves as its president.
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