{"id":1533533,"date":"2025-05-01T16:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T20:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1533533"},"modified":"2025-05-01T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T20:45:00","slug":"brand-new-kohls-ceo-fired-after-highly-unusual-company-transactions-with-his-romantic-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/brand-new-kohls-ceo-fired-after-highly-unusual-company-transactions-with-his-romantic-partner\/1533533\/","title":{"rendered":"Brand New Kohl’s CEO Fired After “Highly Unusual” Company Transactions With His Romantic Partner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brand New Kohl’s CEO Fired After “Highly Unusual” Company Transactions With His Romantic Partner<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Now former\u00a0<\/em>Kohl’s CEO Ashley Buchanan was abruptly fired after an internal investigation revealed he steered the company into a multimillion-dollar deal involving a vendor tied to a former romantic partner, according to the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, who first broke the story.<\/p>\n

Buchanan was hired in November 2024 and became<\/a> CEO effective January 15, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael J. Bender, Kohl\u2019s Board Chair, said at the time:\u00a0\u201cWe know he will be a great leader for Kohl’s and will bring a new perspective in our next chapter.\u201d That chapter barely lasted 4 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Buchanan<\/a><\/p>\n

He “had instructed the retailer to enter into a ‘highly unusual’ business deal involving a woman with whom he has had a romantic relationship,” <\/strong>the\u00a0Journal\u00a0<\/em>wrote.<\/p>\n

The company’s board found Buchanan failed to disclose the relationship and violated the company’s code of conduct, according to a regulatory filing.<\/p>\n

The vendor, unnamed in filings, was part of a consulting team awarded a lucrative contract. Sources identified her as Chandra Holt, a former Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond executive whom Buchanan met years earlier while both worked at Walmart. Holt now runs Incredibrew, a vitamin-infused coffee startup.<\/p>\n

Holt<\/a><\/p>\n

The two have a history:<\/p>\n

The two retail veterans have known each other for years. Buchanan was the Sam\u2019s Club chief merchandising officer and Holt held several positions at the Walmart chain, including general merchandise manager of grocery and the chief operating officer of its website.<\/em><\/p>\n

They both further rose through the ranks at Walmart before leaving around the same time for other positions at Texas-based retailers. Buchanan left in early 2020 to become CEO of Michaels. Holt left in 2021 to become CEO of Conn\u2019s HomePlus and later Bed Bath and Beyond.<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Journal\u00a0<\/em>wrote<\/a> that Buchanan, who became Kohl\u2019s CEO in November 2024 after leading Michaels, will forfeit equity awards and repay a prorated portion of a $2.5 million signing bonus.<\/p>\n

Neither he nor Holt responded to requests for comment. Kohl\u2019s appointed Chairman Michael Bender as interim CEO\u2014the chain\u2019s fourth chief in three years\u2014as it grapples with a 4% sales drop and a likely quarterly loss.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 05\/01\/2025 – 12:45<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/kohls-ceo-fired-after-investigation-reveals-highly-unusual-transactions-romantic-partner<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brand New Kohl’s CEO Fired After “Highly Unusual” Company Transactions With His Romantic Partner Now former\u00a0Kohl’s CEO Ashley Buchanan was abruptly fired after an internal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1533534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1533533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6qWp","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/Screenshot202025-05-0120at2012.08.29E280AFPM-TbfLxA.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1533533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1533534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1533533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1533533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1533533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}