Million-Dollar Baby

Kohl's fired CEO Ashley Buchanan for allegedly steering business to his romantic partner

“The president can’t have a conflict of interest.” – Donald Trump

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Kohl’s gave Ashley Buchanan a compensation package worth well over $20 million to become its third CEO in less than three years.

The struggling strip-mall department store chain has suffered 11 consecutive quarters of sales declines and it projects more to come. Buchanan, 51, took over on Jan. 15 to turn the tide.

So what’s one of the first things he does?

He reportedly gave his girlfriend a multimillion-dollar consulting contract without disclosing his involvement with her, as required by the company’s ethics policy. That’s according to exclusive reporting by The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources.

Kohl’s board announced his immediate termination in a regulatory filing this morning, saying he directed “the Company to engage in vendor transactions that involved undisclosed conflicts of interest.”

Kohl’s CEO Ashley Buchanan. (Photo credit: Business Wire.)

Somehow companies never learn that the more they pay their CEOs, the more audacious they become. Typically, this trend takes years to discover but Buchanan blew his cover in his first 100 days.

Kohl’s called him “a steady, proven, innovative leader” in a Jan. 15 press release. What the board likely didn’t know was that he was going steady with a potential vendor.

The Journal reports Buchanan’s love interest as Chandra Holt, who served briefly served as CEO of Bed Bath and Beyond, which was sold to Overstock.com in a bankruptcy auction in June 2023. They met while both working as executives at Walmart, according to the Journal.

For retailing executives touting “Always Low Prices,” they didn’t come cheap.

Buchanan was likely the highest-paid CEO in Wisconsin, where Kohl’s is headquartered. That’s according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which reported that the company’s last CEO, Tom Kingsbury, ranked No. 2 in 2023 with annual compensation totaling $8.9 million.

Here’s a quick look at what Buchanan just lost, according to Kohl’s regulatory filing, in one of the fastest CEO blunders of all time:

• $3.75 million cash signing bonus (or at least a sizeable portion of it)

• $1.475 million base salary

• 175% of salary as a potential annual bonus

• $2 million in restricted stock as a recruitment award

• $15 million in another restricted stock, vesting over three years, as another recruitment award

• $9 million an annual long-term equity incentive

Buchanan was also on track for a fat list of perquisites, including personal use of the company’s aircraft, auto expenses, financial and tax advisory expenses, charitable contribution matching up to $10,000, and health care expenses not covered by insurance.

Kohl’s boasts 1,100 stores and 60 million customers. It likely has millions of employees and customers who can only pray to cover their denied medical expenses, but for Buchanan this was among the least of his perks.

What he’s got to be asking himself now is, was she worth it? And Kohl’s board members have to be asking themselves, was he?

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