When’s the last time you thought about Kohl’s? If it’s been a minute, here’s a compelling reason to start again: Its CEO just got fired for allegedly funneling business to his girlfriend’s vitamin-infused-coffee company. Per The Wall Street Journal, Ashley Buchanan spent his first (and last) four months as CEO making one too many business deals with his girlfriend, the founder of a coffee brand called Incredibrew. Big-box drama incoming!
On Thursday, Kohl’s announced in a press release that Buchanan — who was appointed to the CEO role less than four months ago — had been terminated “for cause.” The board said it found that Buchanan had “violated company policies” by directing Kohl’s “to engage in vendor transactions that involved undisclosed conflicts of interest.”
In a Securities and Exchange Commission form filed earlier in the week, Kohl’s said Buchanan “had directed that the Company conduct business with a vendor founded by an individual with whom Mr. Buchanan has a personal relationship.” The deal was made “on highly unusual terms favorable to the vendor,” the filing states, and Buchanan allegedly failed to disclose their personal relationship “as required under Company’s Code of Ethics.”
That “personal relationship,” according to the WSJ, was with a woman named Chandra Holt, the founder and CEO of Incredibrew, a brand of vitamin- and mineral-infused coffee. Buchanan and Holt are said to have met several years ago, when they were both working at Walmart. It’s unclear when they first struck up a romantic relationship, but they were romantically involved at some point during Buchanan’s tenure as CEO of the arts-and-crafts supply chain Michaels, which started in 2020 and ended when he joined Kohl’s. According to divorce proceedings obtained by the WSJ, Buchanan attempted to hire Holt while he was at Michaels, but she did not end up joining the company.
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Once he became Kohl’s CEO, it seems, Buchanan spent some time doing business with his girlfriend. It’s unclear exactly what their “highly unusual” business deal entailed, but Kohl’s SEC filing described a “multimillion-dollar consulting agreement” that Buchanan had the company enter. (For those keeping track, that’s tens of thousands in Kohl’s Cash.)
Holt, who reportedly still lives with Buchanan in an “upscale golf community in the suburbs of Dallas,” denied having been in a relationship with him when he tried to hire her at Michaels in a statement to the Journal. She also denied any wrongdoing in connection to the Kohl’s scandal, explaining that she’s “known Ashley Buchanan for 10 years, but I have not received any compensation for my Incredibrew business from Kohl’s.” (Buchanan declined to comment to WSJ, and Holt did not immediately reply to a request for comment from the Cut.)
In the wake of the scandal, Kohl’s has appointed board director Michael Bender as interim CEO. Here’s to hoping he doesn’t have a protein-tea-hawking girlfriend.
