Boulevard founder takes over amid executive departures and sexual harassment claims
Boulevard Brewing Company’s founder John McDonald has taken back control of the iconic beer maker after its top executive stepped down amid accusations of sexual harassment unaddressed by top management officials for years.
Jeff Krum, who led Boulevard since 2016 and worked there for more than 25 years, confirmed his resignation to The Star after informing employees in an email Wednesday afternoon.
Krum was one of three high-ranking Boulevard employees to leave the company this week since a viral Reddit post set off a series of reports that the company was a harmful place to work for women.
Boulevard leaders initially pushed back against allegations of sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace. But by Wednesday, facing pressure from customers and employees, the company apologized.
“As president, one of my oversight responsibilities was to ensure that all our workplaces were free of any form of real or perceived harassment or demonstrations of unwanted attention,” Krum told employees. “Disclosures of recent days make it clear that this was not always achieved.
“Any and all failures in this regard are mine alone.”
McDonald, 67, who sold the brewery in 2013 to Belgium-based Duvel Moortgat NV, said he will lead the company as it works to improve the work environment and its public image. It’s unclear how long he will lead.
“I don’t know,” he said in an interview with The Star on Thursday. “Whatever it takes to get us back on track.”
McDonald and other leaders spoke with local reporters at Boulevard’s beer hall, which has been closed for two days.
While McDonald sold the brewery, he reinvested some of the sales proceeds back into Duvel Moortgat and received a seat on the company’s board of directors. He said he has not played an active role in leading the brewery in recent years, but is a frequent visitor and lives only a few blocks away.
McDonald said Boulevard’s European parent company had played a role in responding to events of this week. Michel Moortgat, CEO of Duvel Moortgat NV, plans to come to Kansas City as soon as possible, he said.
The iconic Kansas City brewery first came under fire on Saturday because of a Reddit post, which accused members of the company of pregnancy discrimination and sexual harassment. The post said women who went to the company’s human resources department were ignored or even targeted.
“I think it is important for everyone to know Boulevard is not a good place for women to work. It is not a ‘family’ company,” the Reddit post said.
In the post, the former Boulevard employee said her boss demanded to know whether she was pregnant. She said she reported the man to HR, which started a cycle of retaliation.
The post caught fire quickly, drawing hundreds of comments, many from accounts identifying themselves as former employees, saying they had experienced or seen toxic behavior and harassment while working at Boulevard.
On Monday, the company released a statement saying the woman’s claims were “thoroughly and impartially examined.”
“The investigation determined that certain situations could and should have been handled with greater sensitivity, but clearly established that there was no harassment or discrimination,” the company said. “We are not perfect, but we have not, and we will not, tolerate harassment, mistreatment, or prejudice in any form.”
Even so, the company also announced it would convene a task force of top female leaders to look at the allegations and “spearhead the effort to fully empower the women of Boulevard.”
That initial statement, released on Boulevard’s website and social media channels, did little to quell the controversy. In fact, it drew a torrent of criticism that characterized the response as an attempt to downplay the extent of the problem while also saying it would use the controversy as “an opportunity to learn and to grow.”
Reddit users described both Boulevard and the brewing industry at large as “toxic” for women. Customers said they were reconsidering buying the company’s beers.
Amid backlash on social media, the company on Tuesday released a longer statement where it acknowledged the widespread issue. It started with “We are sorry.”
“We have heard accounts of personal experiences that have shaken us to our core,” the statement said. “It has become undeniably clear that harassment did in fact occur, clear that we have issues — serious issues that we have failed to address.”
In that post, the company apologized to employees it had hurt, let down or failed to protect. Boulevard said it had parted ways with an unnamed executive and hired an independent HR firm. It said it would enable anonymous reporting, reexamine its policies and mandate that company staff undergo harassment, bias and discrimination training.
That executive was chief financial officer Matthew Szymanski, sources told The Star. Efforts to reach him Wednesday were unsuccessful. Since leaving, he has altered his LinkedIn profile, removing mention of his tenure at Boulevard’s parent company.
After Krum’s departure Wednesday afternoon, Natalie Gershon, the brewery’s vice president of marketing, announced on Facebook that she, too, was leaving. She said she was “gutted” by the events of this week and regretted “not standing firm for what I believed was the right course of action.”
“But let me be clear. The words of the company were not my words. The decisions made were not my decisions,” she wrote. “Like the rest of my colleagues, I was kept in the dark and offered a variety of truths from a seemingly endless bucket of lies.”
She added: “I did not and would not knowingly cover up a claim of harassment, assault or discrimination.”
Gershon declined a request for comment.
A statement on Reddit attributed to Boulevard employees and subsequently shared on social media by other company employees said, “we finally have had enough.” The statement referred to Krum’s and Gershon’s departures.
“The reputation of Boulevard has been severely tarnished, and our inner workings are now in a state of repair,” the statement said, “but with these two root sources and guardians of toxicity and problematic behavior gone, it will be a much easier process building ourselves back up.”
Krum was a longtime chief financial officer at Boulevard before he was promoted to president in 2016.
In addition to managing the Kansas City brewery, he also oversaw Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York, and Duvel Moortgat USA, which handles imports of Belgian beers that the parent company brews.
Krum is a well known figure in Kansas City. He serves on the board of the Downtown Transportation Development District and is chairman of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority board, which oversees operation of the downtown streetcar line. The authority’s executive director, Tom Gerend, did not respond to a request for comment.
McDonald is a native of Osborne, Kansas, and a carpenter by trade. He started Boulevard in 1989 in a warehouse with three employees and oversaw its growth into the second largest brewery in the state, behind only Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis.
In Thursday’s interview, he did not want to discuss individual employees at Boulevard. But he said this week has shown that the company needs to look within, investigate allegations, identify any others that haven’t surfaced and address them.
“We have serious work to do here,” McDonald said. “We have many failures.”
If you are a current or former Boulevard employee and would like to talk to The Star, please reach out to Allison Kite at akite@kcstar.com, Kevin Hardy at khardy@kcstar.com or Steve Vockrodt at svockrodt@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 3:34 PM.
