Best Buy Founder to Step Down After CEO Probe
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KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Best Buy founder Richard Schulze will step down from his role as the company’s chairman after an investigation found that he “acted inappropriately” by failing to inform the company’s audit committee of “personal conduct allegations” involving former CEO Brian Dunn and a female employee.
Schulze will be replaced by current director and audit committee chair Hatim Tyabji on June 21.
The company made the announcement on Monday.
When Dunn stepped down from his role of chief executive officer earlier this year, his resignation was first thought to be a result of the company’s financial woes.
But it was later revealed that the company had launched a probe into a relationship Dunn kept with a fellow employee that the company now says violated company policy and “negatively impacted the work environment.”
“The CEO violated Company policy by engaging in an extremely close personal relationship with a female employee that negatively impacted the work environment,” Best Buy said Monday in announcing the investigation’s findings.
“The CEO’s relationship with the female employee demonstrated extremely poor judgment and a lack of professionalism, but the inquiry revealed no misuse of Company resources,” the company said.
Best Buy contracted law firm WilmerHale to conduct the investigation on its behalf.
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