Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen resigns after Board’s personal conduct investigation
The grocery store chain Kroger announced on Monday that Rodney McMullen had resigned following a board investigation into his personal conduct. The company said that McMullen’s actions did not involve any Kroger employees. His actions did not involve any Kroger workers, the company said.
The management change comes as Kroger, which has headquarters in Cincinnati, has been dealing with the fallout from its collapsed merger with the grocery chain Albertsons.
Kroger said its board learned about “certain personal conduct” of Mr. McMullen’s on Feb. 21 and immediately sought outside counsel to lead an investigation. It said the actions in question were “unrelated to the business.”
The company appointed Ronald Sargent, its lead director, as interim chief executive while the company searches for a replacement. He also assumed the role of chairman from Mr. McMullen. Mr. Sargent has been a director at the company since 2006 and said he had spent summers in college working at its stores.
“I plan to be a steady, but active, hand in the execution of our strategy,” Mr. Sargent said in a statement.
Mr. McMullen worked at Kroger more than 40 years. He began working at Kroger in 1978 as a part time stock clerk in Lexington. In 2003, he was elected to the board of directors and in 2014, he was named chief executive. He was appointed chairman in 2015.
Kroger revealed the management shake-up just days before it reported its fourth-quarter results on Thursday.
The past few months have seen a lot of turmoil for Kroger. Albertsons sued Kroger after federal and state regulators rejected Kroger’s $25-billion bid for Albertsons. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit to stop the deal. They argued that it would reduce the competition and increase prices at the expense workers and consumers. Judge Adrienne Nelson, of the U.S. District Court of Oregon, sided with federal officials, and a Washington state court blocked the deal an hour later. Kroger has denied Albertsons’ claims.
