WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Kroger Co. (KR) announced Monday that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rodney McMullen has resigned from the Company following a Board investigation of his personal conduct, though unrelated to the business.
The Board has appointed Lead Director Ronald Sargent to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors and interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. The Board also announced that Mark Sutton will serve as Kroger's lead independent director, also effective immediately.
On February 21, the Board was made aware of certain personal conduct by McMullen and immediately retained outside independent counsel to conduct an investigation, which was overseen by a special Board committee. The company confirms that McMullen's conduct is not related to the Company's financial performance, operations or reporting, and it did not involve any Kroger associates.
The Board of Directors has formed a Search Committee and engaged a nationally recognized firm to conduct a search for Kroger's next CEO. Sargent has agreed to serve in his role until the appointment of the next CEO.
Sargent has been a Kroger director since 2006 and has served as the lead director of Kroger since 2017. He spent the first ten years of his professional career at Kroger, working in several roles across stores, sales, marketing, manufacturing and strategy.
Sargent is a veteran retail operator and leader with 35 years of experience, including as the Chairman and CEO of Staples, Inc. from 2002 to 2016 after joining the company in 1989. He currently serves on the board of Wells Fargo & Company, and the board of Five Below, Inc. Further, Kroger said it expects full-year Identical Sales without fuel to be at the high end of its guidance range and full-year adjusted earnings per share to be slightly above the high end of its guidance range.
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