The chairman and CEO von Kroger resigned after examining personal behavior

The chairman and CEO von Kroger, Rodney McMullen, resigned after an internal examination of his personal behavior.

On Monday, Kroger, the largest food chain in the country, said on Monday that the examination of McMullen's personal behavior was not related to business, but had no contradiction with his business ethics policy.

Board member Ronald Sargent will immediately work as chairman and interim CEO.

Sargent has been on the Koger board since 2006 and has been the main director of the company since 2017. He worked in several roles in the food chain in shops, sales, marketing, manufacturing and strategy. Sargent is also the former chairman and CEO of Staples.

The 64-year-old McMullen began his career in 1978 at Kroger as a part-time officer and excavator in a shop in Lexington, Kentucky. He worked through the company and became Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer in 1995. McMullen was appointed CEO of Kroger in 2014 and became chairman of the company the following year.

Kroger from Cincinnati said his board was made aware of the situation on February 21 and immediately hired an external independent lawyer to carry out an investigation that was supervised by a special committee.

The company said that the behavior of McMullen is not related to its financial performance, business or reporting and does not affect Kroger employees.

Kroger will carry out a search for his next CEO, with Sargent consenting to stay as an interim CEO until someone is permanently named the role.

The Kroger shares fell by almost 3%on Monday.

McMullen's departure takes place when Kroger grouped himself up from his failed efforts to merge with Albertson. The two companies suggested what the largest supermarket deduction in US history in 2022 would have been, and said they had to combine forces to better compete with rivals like Walmart.

But two judges stopped the deal by $ 24.6 billion in December and said that the competition would probably reduce the competition and increase prices. Albertsons later sued Kroger and said that it was not all efforts to ensure that the merger would gain regulatory approval.

Boise, Albertsons in Idaho, also said on Monday, said his CEO Vivek Sankaran plans to retire on May 1st. Susan Morris, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer from Albertsons, will replace Sankaran, said the company.

Photo: Former Kroger CEO William Rodney McMullen at a meeting of the US Senate in 2022 (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

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