NATIONAL NEWS – Kroger CEO, Rodney McMullen, resigns after a personal conduct investigation

Laila Kirkpatrick, Staff Writer

The CEO of the grocery store chain Kroger has officially resigned after the company board investigated his “personal conduct. CEO Rodney McMullen resigned after the review conducted by the company found him to violate their corporate code of ethics. This marks an abrupt leadership shakeup at the country’s largest supermarket chain. Few details have been released regarding the shakeup and what led to it. Kroger announced Monday that the company’s board had learned about “certain personal conduct by McMullen on February 21st, just over a week ago. The company says that an investigation by outside counsel found that McMullen’s conduct was “unrelated to the business” and did not involve Kroger workers, but still “was inconsistent with Kroger’s Policy on Business Ethics. Most recently McMullen had overseen Kroger’s unsuccessful attempt to buy the second-largest supermarket chain, Albertsons. The historic grocery store merger faced immense opposition from the antitrust officials in Biden’s administration. After over two years of trying, the deal died in December. After that, the companies failed to convince multiple courts that they should’ve been allowed to take on larger companies such as Walmart. Albertson’s abandoned the merger and sued Kroger soon after.

McMullen has been the CEO of Kroger since 2014. He began working at the company as a part-time stocker in 1978. He had earlier served as a chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and board director for over a decade. Kroger is not looking for a new CEO. In the interim, the board has appointed Ron Sargent, Kroger’s lead director and former Staples CEO, as the interim CEO.