The chairman and CEO of Kroger, the nation’s largest grocery store chain and the parent company of King Soopers and City Market, resigned this week after an internal investigation into his personal conduct.
Rodney McMullen became Kroger’s CEO in 2014 and oversaw the company’s national growth over the last decade.
Kroger’s board “retained outside independent counsel to conduct an investigation” overseen by a special committee, according to a statement released by the grocery store giant. It’s unclear what conduct prompted the investigation, which began Feb. 21.
While the company has said that McMullen’s resignation, “is not related to the Company's financial performance, operations or reporting, and it did not involve any Kroger associates,” UFCW Local 7 — the union that represents more than 10,000 King Soopers employees who went on strike earlier this year — said the announcement is “welcome news.”
“We took a strike against Kroger’s stores in Colorado in 2022 and 2025 to challenge their unfair labor practices,” Kim Cordova, President of UFCW Local 7, said. “The issue of chronic understaffing stores in Colorado and around the nation is a crisis we need Kroger to address in negotiations, and we hope this change of CEOs is an opportunity to address this systemic problem.”
For 11 days, thousands of unionized employees at almost 100 stores along the Front Range picketed outside of King Soopers stores, urging customers to shop elsewhere. Workers want the company to address staffing shortages, end alleged price gouging and eliminate seniority-based scheduling protections, among other things. The strikes paused Feb. 18 after both sides reached a temporary return-to-work agreement.
That agreement is set to last 100 days, until the end of April, unless a deal develops.
McMullen, who began his career with Kroger almost 50 years ago as a store clerk and bagger, will be replaced by board member Ronald Sargent. He has been on the company’s board for 19 years and was formerly the chairman and CEO of Staples.
"As interim CEO, I am committed to working alongside our proven and experienced management team and dedicated associates to ensure Kroger continues providing exceptional value for our customers," Sargent said in a statement.
McMullen’s resignation from Kroger comes the same week that Albertsons also announced a new CEO. Its current CEO, Vivek Sankaran, announced his retirement, and the company’s chief operating officer, Susan Morris, a Coloradan, will replace him.
“I’m honored to be named the next Chief Executive Officer at Albertsons Companies – a company I have dedicated my career to,” Morris said in a post on LinkedIn. “My journey began nearly four decades ago at an Albertsons store in the Denver market, and it has been an incredible experience to grow within this company.”
Morris, a Colorado State University alumna, worked her way up through Albertson grocery stores in Denver before becoming the President of the Intermountain Division in 2013 where she oversaw stores in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
Kroger owns 148 King Soopers and City Market stores across Colorado, while Albertsons operates 105 Safeway and Albertsons locations in the state.
The leadership changes in both companies come just a few months after a federal judge temporarily halted a proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons. The proposed merger would have been the largest grocery store merger in U.S. history.
The two grocery giants said they need to merge to compete with rivals like Walmart. Since then, Albertsons and Kroger have been locked into an ongoing legal battle after Albertsons moved to sue Kroger, saying that it had failed to ensure the merger would gain regulatory approval. The case is still ongoing.
