CEOs ousted over relationships usually go for a narrow reason: they broke a written company rule, and often they weren’t straight with the board about it. That is what the boards of Intel, McDonald’s, BP, Norfolk Southern and Nestlé said in their own announcements between 2018 and 2025.
The list is back in the news because Nvidia’s board opened an independent investigation of CEO Jensen Huang on Nov. 8. That day, Huang told staff he had been “unfaithful” to his wife. But the subject the board names differs from every case below, and nothing here predicts how Nvidia’s review ends.
Our story on the Nvidia probe covers what we know so far and the stock reaction.
Eight exits, in the companies’ own words
We built this table from each company’s securities filing or release where one exists. Where we could not open the company’s text, the row credits the news outlet we read instead.
| CEO, company | Year | What the company said he broke | Exit | Money, where documented |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Hurd, HP | 2010 | Standards of Business Conduct; no harassment-policy breach (HP release) | Resigned | $12,224,693 severance plus some stock (8-K) |
| Brian Krzanich, Intel | 2018 | Non-fraternization policy (Reuters via Yahoo) | Resigned (8-K) | None stated in the 8-K |
| Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s | 2019 | Policy; “poor judgment” in a relationship with an employee (release) | “Separated”, without cause | Returned over $105 million in 2021 (release) |
| Bernard Looney, BP | 2023 | “Not fully transparent” about relationships with colleagues (Washington Post via ADN) | Resigned; later dismissed | Up to £32.4 million forfeited (FT via Irish Times) |
| Alan Shaw, Norfolk Southern | 2024 | Policies; relationship with the chief legal officer (8-K) | Terminated for “Cause” | No severance |
| Ashley Buchanan, Kohl’s | 2025 | Code of Ethics; undisclosed vendor conflict (8-K) | Terminated for Cause | All equity forfeited; $2.5 million repaid |
| Laurent Freixe, Nestlé | 2025 | Conduct code; undisclosed relationship with a subordinate (Reuters via The Standard) | Dismissed | No exit package |
| Andy Byron, Astronomer | 2025 | Leaders must “set the standard” in conduct (CNN via CP24) | Resigned | None disclosed (private) |
The pattern: disclosure, not the relationship itself
Three of these are not plainly relationship cases in the company’s own words. HP never said Hurd had a relationship. Kohl’s describes a conflict of interest, not a workplace romance. Astronomer, the one privately held company, never directly addressed the viral Coldplay concert video that preceded Byron’s exit, KTLA reported.
Read the company statements side by side and disclosure keeps coming back. Nestlé’s problem was an “undisclosed” relationship, and Freixe “had initially denied the relationship to the board,” a spokesperson told Reuters. Kohl’s said Buchanan did not disclose the relationship “as required under Company’s Code of Ethics.” BP said Looney “did not provide details of all relationships.”
BP’s board had already looked at Looney once. A review in May 2022 found relationships that predated his time as CEO, and no breach of the code, The Washington Post reported. What ended his job was that later allegations showed his disclosures were incomplete.
Intel and Norfolk Southern are the plainer rule cases. Intel said its non-fraternization policy covers every manager. Norfolk Southern’s filing says the relationship broke company policy, and that the conduct did not touch the railroad’s “strategy, financial performance” or controls.
What decides the money: the word “cause”
The money column follows one label. In these filings, a finding of “cause” left the CEO with little. Norfolk Southern said Shaw was ineligible for severance. Kohl’s took back Buchanan’s equity and $2.5 million of his signing bonus.
McDonald’s shows what happens when the label changes later. In November 2019 it called Easterbrook’s exit a separation and kept him eligible for severance benefits. In August 2020 the board said it had learned he “lied to the Company and the Board and destroyed information.” It had found relationships with three more employees, according to its 8-K, and it sued him in Delaware.
He settled in December 2021, returning equity and cash worth more than $105 million. That was money he “would have forfeited had he been truthful,” McDonald’s said.
In January 2023 the SEC charged him with misleading investors about his termination. It valued his separation agreement at more than $40 million. Without admitting or denying the findings, he agreed to a $400,000 penalty and a five-year officer and director bar.
BP took the same route. In December 2023 it dismissed Looney without notice, saying he had “knowingly misled the board” with assurances given in July 2022.
HP’s 2010 case is the outlier. Hurd resigned with a $12.2 million severance payment. HP’s lead independent director said the departure had nothing to do with HP’s operating performance or financial condition.
How Nvidia’s stated review differs
Nvidia’s board has framed its review around a different question. Its Nov. 8 statement cites “recent reporting” that Huang “has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.” A committee of independent directors, with outside counsel, will oversee it. The board said it has “no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.”
The board has not framed it as a workplace-policy question. Its statement doesn’t mention a code of conduct, a non-fraternization rule or a disclosure breach.
The rest comes from news reports, not from Nvidia. The New York Times and the Financial Times described a relationship between Huang and a businesswoman, NBC News reported. US agencies believe Chinese intelligence recruited her, the papers said, and China’s foreign ministry called that “unsubstantiated.”
NBC describes her as a businesswoman whose Singapore-based company was buying advanced Nvidia chips, which makes her a customer rather than a colleague. None of the reporting we have seen says an Nvidia employee took part.
An Nvidia spokesperson told NBC that Huang is “committed to continuing to lead NVIDIA as CEO without interruption.” Huang’s memo to staff, quoted in our profile of Lori Huang, says “I was unfaithful to my wife” and names no one else.
Huang has until Wednesday, Nov. 11, to accept or reschedule a closed-door briefing that three House committee chairs requested for Nov. 18. Nvidia reports third-quarter results the evening before, on Nov. 17, the company said.
