The top executive of Duvel Moortgat’s U.S. operations resigned today amid a growing number of accusations that management ignored years of accusations of harassment and hostility toward female employees at Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Missouri.
Jeff Krum, who has served as president of Duvel Moortgat USA since 2016 and had worked at the craft brewery since 1994, announced his resignation in an email to employees today, The Kansas City Star reported.
“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.”
A call to Krum was not returned.
Boulevard founder John McDonald, who sold the brewery in October 2013 to Duvel Moortgat, confirmed Krum’s resignation in a statement to the media.
“Effective immediately, we have accepted the resignation of Jeff Krum as president of Boulevard Brewing Company and Duvel USA,” McDonald said. “We recognize we have a long path ahead of us not only for our employees but the Kansas City community and beyond.”
Duvel Moortgat vice president of marketing Natalie Gershon also announced her decision to resign from the company Wednesday evening, saying she felt “gutted.” As the scandal unfolded, Gershon had served as the company’s communications point person, but she said she had not been told of the depth of the situation.
“The words of the company were not my words. The decisions made were not my decisions,” Gershon wrote in a social media post. “Like the rest of my colleagues, I was kept in the dark and offered a variety of truth from a seemingly endless bucket of lies. I did not and would not knowingly cover up a claim of harassment, assault or discrimination.”
Boulevard has faced several days of public backlash against its handling of allegations of discrimination, harassment and assault experienced by several now-former female employees.
Allegations of pregnancy discrimination and sexual harassment came to light last weekend, when a former employee shared her story on a Reddit forum for beer industry workers.
On Monday, Boulevard issued a statement that said the incident the former employee described was investigated and found not to be harassment or discrimination.
But on Tuesday, the company reversed course and published an apologetic statement acknowledging that harassment had taken place and that an unnamed executive was dismissed.
The Star identified the dismissed executive as now-former Duvel USA chief financial officer Matthew Szymanski. References to Duvel have since been scrubbed from Szymanski’s LinkedIn profile and social media profile.