Image Courtesy of Kohl’s
Was Kohl’s Warned About Ex-CEO’s Shady Business Practices Before He Was Fired? This Exec Claims They Were
May 2, 2025
In a stunning development this week, Kohl’s announced the abrupt termination of CEO Ashley Buchanan just 100 days into his tenure. The reason? What the company described as “undisclosed conflicts of interest” surrounding vendor transactions, uncovered through an investigation by outside counsel.
But if Brittain Ladd, a business strategist and AI supply chain management and logistics consultant, is to be believed, this scandal was not just foreseeable — it was avoidable. And Kohl’s had been explicitly warned.
Buchanan’s Abrupt Exit Raises Bigger Questions
According to Kohl’s official statement, Buchanan was fired for breaching company policy by directing vendor contracts that posed “undisclosed conflicts of interest.” The Wall Street Journal later reported that Buchanan had helped secure a multimillion-dollar consulting deal with Incredibrew, a vitamin-infused coffee company founded by his former romantic partner and ex-Walmart colleague, Chandra Holt.
Holt told the Journal, “I’ve known Ashley Buchanan for 10 years, but I have not received any compensation for my Incredibrew business from Kohl’s.”
Still, the damage was done. Buchanan, who took over from Tom Kingsbury in January 2025, will not serve on the board or stand for re-election at the 2025 shareholder meeting.
Brittain Ladd Says He Raised Red Flags Before Buchanan Was Hired
For Brittain Ladd, the firing wasn’t a surprise — it fulfilled a warning he claims he issued months ago.
“I had no doubt that Buchanan was going to break every rule that he could at Kohl’s,” Ladd told RetailWire. “And it happened.”
Ladd says he was contacted in 2023 by senior executives at Michaels, where Buchanan served as CEO. What they described, he says, was a disturbing pattern of unethical behavior involving Buchanan and longtime associate Hsiao Wang.
“Wang said, ‘I’ll build you [a better platform],’” Ladd recounted. “And the way that he did it is he just simply copied software from Blue Yonder. He opened up this office in China, hired several hundred Chinese engineers, and they just copied software.”
Worse still, Ladd alleges that female employees at the China-based office faced coercive working conditions, including a sex scandal that executives say Buchanan ignored.
“When the head of human resources reached out and said, ‘Look, you’ve got to stop this — this is illegal behavior,’ he fired her,” Ladd claimed.
Kohl’s Was Directly Warned — And Ignored It
According to Ladd, he took the information provided to him by Michaels’ insiders and published an investigative article. Then, when Buchanan was being considered for the top role at Kohl’s, he said he contacted the company’s executive team and legal department directly.
“I contacted Kohl’s,” he said. “I reached out to their chief legal officer. She completely ignored me.”
“I sent them copies of my article… You really need to pay attention to this because I have no doubt that Buchanan is going to pull something when he’s at Kohl’s.”
He didn’t stop there. Ladd says he also alerted press members in Milwaukee, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg — all to no avail.
“They absolutely ignored it,” he said. “He was just being himself. This is how that guy operates.”
A Pattern of Behavior — And a Crisis of Leadership
Ladd insists Buchanan’s actions at Kohl’s weren’t isolated, but part of a well-established pattern dating back to his time at Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Michaels. He claims Buchanan even helped Wang land a position at Walgreens after the scandal at Michaels — where the same behavior allegedly repeated.
“They fired him [at Walgreens] because of my article,” Ladd noted.
To Ladd, the larger issue is not Buchanan — it’s the industry’s failure to screen for this kind of leadership.
“Kohl’s has a reputation as being a company with a really terrible board of directors,” Ladd said, claiming that they didn’t do their due diligence. “That’s why I know when they try and say, ‘We did our due diligence’ — no, they didn’t. They’re lying. I guarantee it.”
What’s Next for Kohl’s?
Now that Buchanan is gone, Ladd says Kohl’s needs more than a new CEO — it needs a new vision.
“They need someone who’s a visionary… someone who understands the importance of using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and supply chain backwards and forwards,” he said. He even floated bold options: selling to Amazon, merging with Lululemon, or partnering with SHEIN or Primark.
“The morale of that company was already bad,” he said. “And they are absolutely furious that this is just another black eye on Kohl’s.”
In Ladd’s view, Kohl’s situation will only worsen unless it rethinks its entire leadership structure and strategic direction.
“When a retailer loses relevance, they can never be saved,” he warned. “And Kohl’s is really close to losing all relevance.”
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