Goal introduced on Wednesday that CEO Brian Cornell is stepping down and will probably be changed in February 2026. The announcement comes months after the corporate scrapped its variety applications, echoing the Trump administration, and has skilled a big gross sales decline.
Goal mentioned present Chief Working Officer Michael Fiddelke would take over from Cornell. The corporate additionally revealed that in its most up-to-date earnings, gross sales are down 1.9% from a yr in the past.
The disappointing earnings report and management change proceed the continued monetary turmoil for the retailer over the previous yr. Cornell admitted in an earnings name in Could that the corporate was going through headwinds over declining shopper confidence, uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariff insurance policies, and “the reaction to the updates we shared on belonging in January.”
The replace in query was Goal’s resolution to desert the corporate’s earlier commitments to racial variety, a transfer the corporate introduced days after Trump’s inauguration.
Brian Cornell, the outgoing CEO of Goal, speaks at a monetary group assembly in 2019 in New York.
In January, simply 4 days after Trump was sworn in, Goal advised staff in a memo that it could cease making an attempt to fulfill beforehand introduced variety, fairness, and inclusion objectives and that it was killing a program that includes merchandise from minority-owned companies. Goal additionally mentioned it could cease reporting to the Human Rights Marketing campaign’s Company Equality Index, a benchmarking device that measures firms’ commitments to equitable enterprise practices.
The retailer rapidly discovered itself the goal of a boycott led by Black church buildings, which described the motion as a method to emphasize the spending energy of Black shoppers.
The Trump administration has put assaults on variety on the forefront of its coverage agenda as articulated by Trump, who has an intensive historical past of racism and different types of bigotry. Central to this campaign is conservative antagonism to the idea of being “woke.” Initially utilized by racial justice advocates, the time period has been adopted by the precise as a slur to assault initiatives meant to spice up racial, ethnic, and gender equality.
Conservatives have tried to argue that when corporations go “woke” they find yourself going “broke,” however Goal’s fumbles present the alternative. On the identical time that initiatives embracing “woke” beliefs are producing billions in income, Goal’s resolution to comply with Trump seems to be hurting its backside line.
