Kohl CEO, Ashley Buchanan, was dismissed this week because he had a personal relationship not disclosed with a seller in a council team which concluded an agreement of several million dollars with the retailer in his direction, said the company in a regulatory file.
Buchanan has only been since January.
A survey of an external law firm revealed that Buchanan had violated the company’s policies by ordering the company to conclude “supplier transactions which involved conflicts of non -disclosed interests”, the department store said.
The Kohl Board of Directors put an end to Buchanan, said the company, and appointed the director of the board of directors Michael Bender as an interim CEO.
Kohl said Buchanan’s dismissal was not linked to the performance of the company and did not involve any other employee. Buchanan previously held the same position with the craft retailer Michaels since 2020. He became general manager of Kohl in January.
Kohl’s declared Wednesday in a regulatory file with the Securities and Exchange Commission according to which the investigation revealed that Buchanan had ordered the company to “do business with a seller founded by a person with whom Mr. Buchanan has a personal relationship to very unusual terms favorable to the seller”.
The file said that the anonymous person was also part of a consulting team that had entered into a several million dollars agreement with Kohl under the direction of Buchanan.
The regulatory file said Buchanan had not disclosed the relationship required under the company’s policy, and that he will have to lose all the prices and bonuses in equity he received from Kohl when he hired. He will also have to reimburse the company on a professional basis for a signature bonus of $ 2.5 million.
Kohl did not reveal to whom was the consultation agreement, but the Wall Street Journal, which was the first to report Buchanan had been dismissed, said that it was Boston Consulting Group, where Buchanan’s romantic partner, Chandra Holt, was an advisor. The newspaper report quoted anonymous people familiar with the issue.
Buchanan and Holt did not immediately respond to requests for comments made by phone and e-mail.
Boston Consulting Group said in a statement to NBC News that he was “shocked to learn the relationship between” Holt and Buchanan.
“We have strict guidelines for our superior advisers to disclose any conflict of interest,” said Boston Consulting, adding that he had ended the Holt contract for non-disclosure.
The Boston Consulting Group said that Holt is a recognized industry expert who worked for the part -time group and was paid on time.
“It was not involved in the structuring of the project or the negotiation of contract conditions and should not direct any part of the project,” said the group.