"Just this week, Nestlé CEO Laurent Freixe stepped down after he failed to disclose an ongoing romantic relationship with a direct subordinate after a tip to a company hotline. The primary instinct in this situation-as seems to be the reflexive instinct for the CEO class-was to deny, deny, deny. That was until additional tips to the company's hotline led to an investigation and Freixe's ouster."
"More famously, there was the case of Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, caught with his chief people officer on a kiss cam at a Coldplay concert. For purposes of PR, the dead of summer is the absolute worst time to be caught in flagrante mylo xyloto with your "work wife" instead of your real one. These are slow days for the attention economy, when people have plenty of time to memeify the worst day of your life."
"The CEO Summer of Love may have officially kicked off with the termination of Kohl's CEO Ashley Buchanan in May after it was discovered he was steering business to someone with whom he was having a relationship. Kohl's had previously been best known for its business model of converting Amazon returns into 20% off coupons for nothing you want to buy."
Summer 2025 featured multiple high-profile CEO scandals involving undisclosed romantic relationships, conflicts of interest, and public misconduct. Nestlé CEO Laurent Freixe resigned after failing to disclose a relationship with a subordinate following hotline tips and an investigation. Astronomer CEO Andy Byron was filmed kissing the company’s chief people officer at a concert, and a celebrity-backed PR response failed to restore investor and user confidence. Kohl's CEO Ashley Buchanan was terminated for steering business to a romantic partner. Social media amplification and the slow summer attention cycle intensified reputational harm and market repercussions for the affected companies.
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