{"id":3295,"date":"2026-02-12T19:42:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/3295\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T19:42:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:42:27","slug":"nestle-fired-its-scandal-clad-ceo-without-a-payout-a-really-unusual-move-expert-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/3295\/","title":{"rendered":"Nestl\u00e9 fired its scandal-clad CEO without a payout\u2014a \u2018really unusual\u2019 move, expert says"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Nestl\u00e9 abruptly ousted<\/a> its chief executive Laurent Freixe over Labor Day weekend after revelations of a romantic relationship with a direct subordinate, one detail stood out: He was shown the door without a severance package.<\/p>\n

That, according to corporate-governance veteran Nell Minow, is almost unheard-of in the C-suite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is really unusual,\u201d she told Fortune. \u201cI think that\u2019s actually a badge of success for corporate governance, because that\u2019s something investors have been concerned about for a long time: CEOs being dismissed and somehow getting to stay on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nestl\u00e9 confirmed to Fortune that Freixe will not receive a severance package.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For years, high-profile executives who crossed ethical lines have left with multimillion-dollar parachutes. Famously, Steve Easterbrook, the former chief executive of McDonald\u2019s, walked away<\/a> from the role with a hefty sum of $40 million after getting caught having a consensual relationship with a subordinate. McDonald\u2019s later clawed back<\/a> $105 million from Easterbrook after finding he hadn\u2019t disclosed sexual relationships with other subordinates at the fast food giant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adam Neumann\u2014after leading a disastrous charge<\/a> to take the company he founded, WeWork<\/a>, public\u2014received<\/a> $445 million in a payout package during his ouster. And after 346 people died in two crashes during Dennis Muilenburg\u2019s tenure as Boeing<\/a> CEO, he was not awarded severance but still left<\/a> with more than $60 million in stock options.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Minow said these different outcomes show that boards are not always consistent in how they police misconduct, but that one thing remains the same: Social media has left directors with fewer options to look the other way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been bad behavior in the boardroom for a long time,\u201d Minow said. \u201cBut partly because of social media, partly because of the way things get out, the board is under more pressure to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reputational fallout from bad behavior can be brutal. A Polish CEO who was recently caught on video<\/a> snatching a U.S. Open souvenir hat from a child watched his company\u2019s online reviews collapse to near zero in days. The \u201cJohn\u201d of Papa John\u2019s caused Major League Baseball to pull its promotion<\/a> with the pizza chain after he used the N-word during a media-training call in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boards are slowly adapting, Minow argued. Some have begun docking bonuses or moving faster to terminate CEOs \u201cfor cause,\u201d meaning the executive in question committed serious misconduct that warrants dismissal without severance pay. But she warned many still demonstrate\u00a0 a double standard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you see some hypocrisy in the board, by the way that they handle the CEO versus the way they handle a middle manager, that\u2019s a green light for employees to behave badly themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the apology, she said, operates as a test of governance. Minow keeps what she calls an informal \u201chall of shame\u201d of poor executive apologies. The worst, she explained, dodge responsibility or fail to show how the company will prevent a repeat. The best are blunt, swift, and backed by action.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Nestl\u00e9\u2019s move may prove a turning point. By denying Freixe a golden parachute, the Swiss food giant signaled that boards are starting to treat reputational risk as seriously as financial risk, and that missteps at the top no longer guarantee a cushy landing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Nestl\u00e9 abruptly ousted its chief executive Laurent Freixe over Labor Day weekend after revelations of a romantic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[126],"tags":[981,3111,3112,3113,199,2987,3114,175,3115],"class_list":["post-3295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nestle","tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","tag-corporate-governance","tag-fired","tag-firing","tag-nestle","tag-retail","tag-severance","tag-stock","tag-stock-options"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}