Latest news with #ChandraHolt
The Independent
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Married Kohl's CEO affair with a Walmart exec was retail's dirty little secret. When it was exposed, it upended retail
Kohl's CEO Ashley Buchanan's affair with former Walmart executive Chandra Holt was retail's dirty little secret – until he was fired for bolstering her business. Buchanan, 51, was fired by Kohl's earlier this month after an investigation revealed he had brokered a deal for the department store to sell products from 45-year-old Holt's coffee startup, Incredibrew, an explosive report in The Wall Street Journal detailed. The terms of the deal, which were 'unusual' and favorable to Incredibrew, raised red flags for some employees. Buchanan was ultimately fired for breaking the retailer's ethics code by failing to disclose his relationship with Holt. While there was gossip among employees about a potential romance between Buchanan and Holt dating back years, Kohl's Chairman Michael Bender, who had worked with the pair at Walmart a decade ago, was left out of the loop. During a meeting, Bender demanded to know if he was dating Holt, to which Buchanan replied 'yes,' according to the report. The relationship, an open secret for years as the pair worked at Walmart and later craft store Michaels, culminated in the pair each filing for divorce from their respective spouses in 2020. Soon after, they moved into a $3 million stone house at the Vaquero Club, a wealthy Dallas suburb teeming with mansions, where they would be seen playing tennis together. Court records also showed that an extramarital affair between Holt and Buchanan had a role in her divorce, according to the report. Two bosses of major retailers Both Buchanan and Holt had been in charge of major retailers over the years, with her leading Bed Bath & Beyond and another smaller Texas company. She had also started Incredibrew and was marketing it to both Kohl's and Michaels while Buchanan was running them. The pair mostly kept quiet about their relationship, according to people who worked with them and court documents. When Michaels tried to recruit Holt for a senior role soon after Buchanan became CEO in 2020, he didn't disclose their relationship, one person familiar with the matter told the WSJ. Holt declined to take the job. Buchanan also failed to disclose his relationship with Holt to some merchants, who decide what products the store sells customers, when Michaels decided to add Incredibrew to its stores, according to the report. When he was fired by Kohl's, Buchanan claimed he just made introductions for merchants but never required them to buy any specific products, one person who spoke with him said. Legal repercussions Kohl's announced Buchanan's firing on May 1, saying an investigation by outside lawyers found he had violated the company's ethics code and helped arrange a deal to sell Holt's coffee products. Buchanan had dictated the payment terms and the order was for hundreds of Kohl's stores, according to the report. Kohl's also noted the deal's terms were 'unusual' and favorable to the vendor, according to the report. The investigation also uncovered that Buchanan had caused Kohl's to enter a multimillion-dollar consulting agreement with Boston Consulting Group, where Holt served as an advisor at the time. When interviewed for the investigation, Holt said she'd known Buchanan for 10 years and they weren't romantically involved when Michaels was trying to hire her. She also said her new business, Incredibrew, hadn't been compensated by Kohl's. Boston Consulting Group later terminated Holt's contract as a result of the non-disclosure.
New York Post
02-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Ex-Kohl's CEO posted LinkedIn video of lover 3 months before scandal broke: ‘No wonder you got exposed'
Three months ago, ousted Kohl's CEO Ashley Buchanan posted a video on LinkedIn of the glamorous retail guru with whom he disastrously mixed business and romance — a social-media goof that may have helped spark his getting fired this week, The Post has learned. The 51-year-old Buchanan – reportedly axed on Thursday over a 'highly unusual multimillion-dollar contract' that involved his 44-year-old lover, Chandra Holt – reposted on LinkedIn a video produced by Holt to promote her five month-old coffee startup, IncrediBrew. The video shows a coiffed Holt in a white turtleneck, sitting in front of an electric fireplace while extolling the benefits of collagen infused coffee. 7 Chandra Holt's contract with the prestigious Boston Consulting Group was terminated on Thursday. Chandra Holt/Facebook 'For those of you over the age of 30 and have not discovered collagen, I would highly recommend it. It is amazing for hair, skin and nails as well as bone and joint health,' Holt says in the video. The fact that Buchanan had not taken down the post on Thursday afternoon — hours after the scandal broke — shocked some industry insiders. 'Can't believe he still has her on his LinkedIn page,' one retail executive told The Post. One LinkedIn user likewise commented on Buchanan's post, writing, 'Dayum bro Ashley Buchanan no wonder you got exposed, you repos[t]ing this.' 7 Ashey Buchanan was the CEO of Kohl's for four months before he was axed for 'cause,' the company announced on Thursday. Kohl's Buchanan appeared to have taken down his LinkedIn profile altogether on Friday. Kohl's, meanwhile, disclosed it had fired Buchanan for cause on Thursday morning — but didn't remove his profile from its website until late afternoon. 'Ordinarily if you fire someone you don't have a glowing bio of our CEO at 3 p.m.,' said Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor who now specializes in employment law and white collar crime for Kudman Trachten Aloe Posner LLP. 'It's evidence that Kohl's was moving very quickly,' Epner said. 'If they had time to implement this, someone would have gone through and removed him from the website.' Epner said he couldn't speculate on what tipped off Kohl's except to say that companies have a number of ways that they track information that could lead to investigations, including anonymous tip lines and internal controls. 7 Chandra Holt posted a video on her LinkedIn promoting her months-old coffee company. Chandra Holt/LinkedIn Holt, meanwhile, also got fired the same day from her plum gig at Boston Consulting Group, which had been hired for the multimillion-dollar Kohl's contract, the prestigious firm confirmed in a statement to The Post. 'BCG was shocked to learn of the relationship between Chandra Holt and Ashley Buchanan. We have strict guidelines for our senior advisors to disclose any conflicts of interest,' the company said in a statement. 'As a result of this non-disclosure, we have terminated Chandra Holt's contract.' Kohl's has not commented or confirmed that BCG or Holt sparked Buchanan's firing. 7 Her company, IncrediBrew, infuses coffee pods with vitamins and supplements. Chandra Holt/LinkedIn Buchanan and Holt did not return calls for comment. It turns out that there's plenty that Holt and Buchanan failed to disclose to their former employers. The pair, who both hail from Texas and worked together for years at Walmart, are living together in an upscale golf community in Dallas, according to a Wall Street Journal report. After Buchanan left Walmart in 2020 to head up the Michaels arts-and-crafts chain, he tried to hire Holt, according to the report. Holt left Walmart instead to become CEO of Conn's HomePlus – a stint that lasted a year. The chain went belly up last year. 7 Buchanan and Holt worked together at Walmart for years. Business Wire Holt told The Journal that she and Buchanan were not in a relationship when she was being recruited by Michael's. But Buchanan's divorce proceedings suggest otherwise, according to the report. 'Mr. Buchanan was recruiting Chandra Holt to be part of Michaels' executive team,' his ex-wife's lawyer wrote, according to the report. 'Ms. Holt is not simply a paramour, but instead is someone who very likely was privy to communications relevant to this case.' This time, Buchanan could be facing more serious legal trouble, according to a white collar attorney. 'It is highly unusual for a company to say that it is firing an executive for cause,' Epner said. 7 It's 'highly unusual' for a company to fire its CEO for 'cause,' a white collar attorney told The Post. REUTERS 7 Chandra Holt has held high-level retail jobs, including the CEO of Conn's HomePlus. Chandra Holt/LinkedIn The lawyer said Buchanan potentially violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by not disclosing what's called 'related party' conflicts of interest before he signed Kohl's annual report on March 20. 'Depending on the specifics of the relationship with the person who he entered into these contracts and the timing, it's possible that those contracts had to be disclosed,' Epner said. BCG said in a statement that as an advisor to BCG Holt 'is a recognized industry expert we would use part time and pay hourly to provide advice on specific topics. She was not involved in structuring the [Kohl's] project or negotiating any contract terms and was not expected to lead any part of the project.' But Holt, who was retained by BCG about 10 months ago, would have been called on as an expert during the course of the project, a source with knowledge of the deal told The Post.
News18
02-05-2025
- Business
- News18
Who Is Chandra Holt, At The Centre Of Controversy In Kohl's CEO Firing?
Last Updated: Headlines have shifted from Chandra Holt's professional achievements to her personal ties -- specifically her undisclosed relationship with now-ousted Kohl's CEO Ashley Buchanan. Chandra Holt, 44, a seasoned American retail executive with stints at Walmart, Conn's, and Bed Bath & Beyond, has recently found herself at the centre of a corporate storm. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with an MBA, Holt built her reputation through roles in e-commerce innovation and merchandising leadership. But now, headlines have shifted from her professional achievements to her personal ties — specifically her undisclosed relationship with now-ousted Kohl's CEO Ashley Buchanan. Buchanan had only recently taken on the CEO role at Kohl's, accepting the position in January. But in a dramatic move less than four months later, he was shown the door. According to The Wall Street Journal, the board was alarmed by 'highly unusual terms" in a multi-million-dollar deal he had approved. The contract was awarded to a team reportedly led by none other than Chandra Holt — his undisclosed romantic partner. The combination of the secret relationship and the deal raised red flags, leading to Buchanan's abrupt dismissal. Chandra Holt's Career and the Jonas Brothers Twist Before this controversy, Holt was navigating her own career transitions. Her time as CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond was short-lived, ending during a 2024 leadership shakeup at its successor company, Beyond, Inc. Shortly thereafter, she ventured into entrepreneurship, founding Incredibrew, a startup offering coffee pods infused with protein, vitamins, and collagen. The fallout didn't end with Buchanan's firing. Holt's contract with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was also terminated after the firm said it was blindsided by the revelation of her relationship with Buchanan. In a statement to Journal Sentinel, a BCG spokesperson said, 'We were shocked to learn of the relationship between Chandra Holt and Ashley Buchanan," citing non-disclosure as the key reason for ending the engagement. First Published: May 02, 2025, 13:09 IST
