CINCINNATI — Nearly one year after Rodney McMullen's sudden resignation as Kroger's CEO, the Cincinnati-headquartered grocery giant has tapped former Walmart executive Greg Foran to fill the role.
The Kroger Company announced Monday that its Board of Directors appointed Foran, effective immediately. Since McMullen's resignation, the role has been handled by Ron Sargent, who's served as interim CEO since March 2025.
"Greg is a highly respected operator who knows how to run large-scale retail businesses, strengthen store execution and lead high-performing teams," Sargent said in a press release from Kroger. "His leadership style, focus on the customer, commitment to associates and disciplined approach to execution are the perfect fit for Kroger. The Board is confident Greg is the right leader to guide Kroger into its next chapter."
Sargent will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board, a role previously filled by McMullen, "ensuring a smooth leadership transition," reads Kroger's announcement.
Foran led Walmart’s U.S. division for six years before departing in 2019. While there, he introduced online ordering and pickup, and accelerated Walmart’s digital capabilities.
Most recently, however, Foran — a New Zealand native — has served as CEO of Air New Zealand, where he worked on the company's digital transformation. He worked with the airline company through the COVID-19 pandemic. During his five years there, Foran "led complex union negotiations, managed multiple supply chain crises and invested in fleet upgrades," according to Kroger's announcement.
Shares of The Kroger Co. rose 6% before the opening bell Monday after Kroger said Foran would lead the company, the Associated Press reports.
McMullen abruptly stepped down from his role as Kroger's CEO last year, following a Board investigation of his conduct; Kroger said McMullen’s conduct was unrelated to the business but was “inconsistent” with the company’s policy on business ethics.
In 2022, Kroger proposed a merger with grocery chain Albertson's that has not ended particularly well for Kroger. A federal judge blocked the deal in December 2024 — and one day after, Albertson's sued Kroger for "billions of dollars" indamages.
Albertsons press release at the time claimed Kroger caused the merger to fail by ignoring regulators’ feedback, rejecting stronger divestiture buyers and failing to cooperate with Albertsons in pursuing the deal. It’s seeking not only a $600 million termination fee that’s required by the deal, but reimbursement of the roughly $400 million Albertsons spent while pursuing the merger and lost shareholder value caused by the deal's failure.
“Rather than fulfill its contractual obligations to ensure that the merger succeeded, Kroger acted in its own financial self-interest, repeatedly providing insufficient divestiture proposals that ignored regulators’ concerns,” Albertsons General Counsel Tom Moriarty said in a press release. “We are disappointed that the opportunity to realize the significant benefits of the merger has been lost on account of Kroger’s willfully deficient approach to securing regulatory clearance.”
Kroger called the allegations "baseless and without merit" in a statement:
"Kroger refutes these allegations in the strongest possible terms, especially in light of Albertsons’ repeated intentional material breaches and interference throughout the merger process. This is clearly an attempt to deflect responsibility following Kroger’s written notification of Albertsons’ multiple breaches of the agreement, and to seek payment of the merger’s break fee, to which they are not entitled."
The Kroger Company announced it will provide an update on the leadership change during its March 5 earnings call.
