NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sharon McCollam, the former chief financial officer of Williams-Sonoma Inc , will be coming out of retirement to take over as the finance chief at Best Buy Co Inc at the end of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

McCollam, 50, will join the world's largest consumer-electronics retailer amid a wide organizational restructuring under new Chief Executive Hubert Joly, and a looming buyout proposal by former chairman and founder Richard Schulze.

A representative for Best Buy declined to comment.

Best Buy last month said its chief financial officer, Jim Muehlbauer, was leaving the company at the end of the fiscal year and that it was searching for a replacement.

McCollam retired from Williams-Sonoma in March. She spent 12 years at the retailer, known for its eponymous cookware stores and the Pottery Barn and West Elm home chains, and held a variety of senior financial and operations management roles. Prior to that, McCollam was chief financial officer of Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc, a owned subsidiary of Dole Food Co Inc . News of McCollam's departure at the time sent shares of Williams-Sonoma down.

In July, McCollam was elected to the board of directors of U.S. office supplies chain OfficeMax Inc , where she also serves on the audit and executive compensation committees.

(Reporting By Nadia Damouni; Editing by Leslie Adler)