Kroger CEO McMullen resigns after conduct probe; interim CEO Sargent appointed; FY2024 guidance raised

KROGER CO

CEO Rodney McMullen resigned after Board investigation found personal conduct inconsistent with Policy on Business Ethics; not related to financials or associates.
Lead Director Ronald Sargent appointed interim Chairman and CEO; Mark Sutton becomes lead independent director.
McMullen forfeits all unvested equity and 2024 bonus; retains fully vested awards with completed performance periods.
Kroger expects full-year identical sales (ex-fuel) at high end of guidance and adjusted EPS slightly above high end.
Board formed search committee and engaged national firm to conduct permanent CEO search.

item 2.02 item 5.02 item 7.01 item 9.01

Executive movements

Machine-extracted from this filing. Every card cites the SEC source. See all recent executive movements.

Departed

Rodney McMullen

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

KR · KROGER CO

Effective: 2025-03-03
Successor: Ronald Sargent
Filed: March 3, 2025, 6:59 PM ET

On March 3, 2025, the Company announced that Rodney McMullen, the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, has resigned from those positions, effective immediately.

Role change

Mark Sutton

Lead Director

KR · KROGER CO

Effective: 2025-03-02
Filed: March 3, 2025, 6:59 PM ET

The Board has appointed director Mark Sutton to serve as the Board’s Lead Director.

Appointed (interim)

Ronald Sargent

interim Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

KR · KROGER CO

Effective: 2025-03-02
Filed: March 3, 2025, 6:59 PM ET

On March 2, 2025, the Board appointed Ronald Sargent, the current Lead Director of the Board, as interim Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, effective immediately.

Key facts

Extracted from this filing and checked against the source text.

Executive change SEC 8-K Item 5.02 confidence 0.95

Rodney McMullen resigned as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at KROGER CO.

Action: resigned
Role: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Exact text from the filing

On March 3, 2025, the Company announced that Rodney McMullen, the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, has resigned from those positions, effective immediately.

View on SEC.gov

Executive change SEC 8-K Item 5.02 confidence 0.9

Mark Sutton was appointed as Lead Director at KROGER CO.

Action: appointed
Role: Lead Director

Exact text from the filing

The Board has appointed director Mark Sutton to serve as the Board’s Lead Director.

View on SEC.gov

Executive change SEC 8-K Item 5.02 confidence 0.95

Ronald Sargent was appointed as interim Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at KROGER CO.

Action: appointed
Role: interim Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Exact text from the filing

On March 2, 2025, the Board appointed Ronald Sargent, the current Lead Director of the Board, as interim Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, effective immediately.

View on SEC.gov

KROGER CO filing history →

Source: SEC EDGAR

accession 0001104659-25-019465

view filing index on sec.gov

view primary document

Machine-readable: JSON · Markdown · Plain text

This headline and bullets were generated automatically by deepseek-v4-flash:cloud@v2 from the public filing. Read the source on SEC.gov before relying on any specific claim. Not investment advice. See methodology for how this pipeline works.