ISSAQUAH, Wash. — Hamilton (Tony) James has been elected chairman of Costco Wholesale Corp.

James takes the reins as Costco chairman following the death of co-founder Jeff Brotman earlier this month.

President and chief operating officer of the Blackstone Group L.P., James has served as a director of Costco since August 1988 and been the warehouse club chain’s lead independent director since 2005.

Currently, Costco operates 512 warehouse club stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, including about 500 in-store pharmacies. The company is the nation’s 14th-largest retail pharmacy operator.

Overall, Costco has 737 warehouses, including 97 in Canada, 37 in Mexico, 28 in the United Kingdom, 25 in Japan, 13 in Korea, 13 in Taiwan, eight in Australia, two in Spain, one in Iceland and one in France.