July 24 (Bloomberg) — A compensation consultant to Best Buy Co.'s board quit after the electronics chain awarded more than 100 managers retention bonuses without tying them to performance, said three people with knowledge of the matter.

Don Delves, who worked with Best Buy's compensation committee for seven years as an independent consultant, was opposed to the payments, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Delves, president of the Chicago-based Delves Group, a corporate governance and an executive pay advisory firm, confirmed in a telephone interview that he resigned this month.

Chief Financial Officer James Muehlbauer and Michael Vitelli, head of the U.S. division, were among executives awarded extra pay as incentive to stay while Best Buy seeks a replacement for Chief Executive Officer Brian Dunn, a June regulatory filing shows. The retailer's stock had sunk 20 percent this year through July 23, torpedoed by the first annual loss in two decades and a scandal tied to Dunn's conduct.