Paul Raines, who has led GameStop (GME) for the past eight years, has resigned from the company to focus on his health after “a medical reoccurrence” of a brain tumor.
Raines resigned from the company’s board last week, according to Dallas News, “in order to focus on his health and family.” He had temporarily stepped down from his CEO role in November after a tumor appeared. He was treated in 2014 for a cancerous brain tumor, which was removed, and underwent preventative chemotherapy afterward.
Daniel A. DeMatteo, a member of the company’s board of directors and GameStop’s CEO from August 2008 to June 2010, has been serving as interim CEO.
Raines, who also resigned from the board of J.C. Penney last week, will remain an employee of GameStop through mid-March.
Initially serving as chief operating officer, Gaines has guided GameStop through a number of challenges. He oversaw the company’s lucrative trade-in business nine years ago, successfully fighting off incursions from Best Buy and Walmart. He has guided the retailer as the video game industry has moved to a model where titles are downloaded digitally, rather than purchased in stores.
To offset losses from that shift, Raines launched a program to let people rent used games and oversaw the company’s purchase of retailer ThinkGeek, which has generated new revenue streams.
Despite those efforts, the company has seen its share price suffer, leading it close 150 stores last year to reduce costs.
