Boulevard Presidents Steps Down Amidst Allegations

Jeff Krum Steps Down

Jeff Krum, the president of Boulevard Brewing Company, has resigned – effective immediately (January 26th – 27th, 2021) – after allegations were brought forth against the company by a former employee.

“Effective immediately, we have accepted the resignation of Jeff Krum as president of Boulevard Brewing Company and Duvel USA. We recognize we have a long path ahead of us not only for our employees but the Kansas City community and beyond,” said John McDonald, founder of Boulevard.
John McDonald – founder of Boulevard Brewing Company

Boulevard Brewing expounded on this on their Facebook post:

….were thoroughly and impartially examined a year ago. 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.
Boulevard Brewing Company (Facebook)

Tuesday the company took to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to make an apology. Their apology:

In the last few days, we have heard from our employees, our former employees, and our community. We have learned a lot about ourselves. We have heard accounts of personal experiences that have shaken us to our core. It has become undeniably clear that harassment did in fact occur, clear that we have issues – serious issues that we have failed to address.

To those of you that we hurt, those we let down, those we failed to protect, we are deeply sorry.

Words won’t change anything, or fix anything, only actions. So starting today, we are taking the first steps.

Based on additional, corroborated information, we parted ways with a company executive.

We are hiring an independent third party human resources firm to undertake an independent investigation of all issues that have been raised, with full access to all our people and all our records. We will share the results with our teams, and will take all recommended actions.

We are instituting new procedures to enable anonymous reporting of workplace concerns, and reexamining our policies to ensure that all issues are handled in a thorough, independent, and fair manner.

We are instituting enhanced and mandatory harassment, bias, and discrimination training throughout the organization, and committing to improving diversity and inclusion.

This is the beginning of a long but necessary journey, a journey that has begun too late. While we cannot undo the mistakes of our past, we are resolved to do better, and to be better.
Boulevard Brewing Company (Various Social Media Platforms)

Boulevard Brewing Company

For more information on Boulevard Brewing Company, check out their social media pages:

According to Untappd – Boulevard Brewing Company is a regional brewery from Kansas City, Missouri. They are a subsidiary of Duvel Moortgat. They have 270 unique beers and over 3 million ratings, and have a global average rating of 3.79 (as of 1.29.21). Their Untappd description reads: “Boulevard Brewing Company has grown to be the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest, with full or partial distribution currently in 41 states and Washington D.C. Since 1989 our brewery has remained dedicated to the craft of producing fresh, flavorful beers using traditional ingredients and the best of both old and new brewing techniques. Our selection of fine ales and lagers include the Midwest’s best-selling craft beer, Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Beer, our flagship Boulevard Pale Ale, and The Smokestack Series line of artisanal beers. We are proud to be Kansas City’s Beer.”

Jeff Krum

Jeff Krum stepped down after 26 years. He had led the Kansas City-based brewery since 2016.

Krum sent an email to employees that was obtained by The Kansas City Star, where he accepted full responsibility for the environment at Boulevard. His e-mail stated:

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. Disclosures of recent days make it clear that this was not always achieved.

Any and all failures in this regard are mine alone.
Jeff Krum e-mail

Numerous news stories have picked up this event, including BizJournal:

Two other top officials at the area’s largest brewery resigned this week after a viral post on Reddit from a woman who said she is a former employee detailed instances of harassment against women who worked there. According to another Reddit post by Boulevard employees, those two people are CFO Matthew Szymanski and Vice President of Marketing Natalie Gershon.

The fallout was sparked by a woman who claimed on Reddit that the company retaliated against her for being pregnant. The post attracted about 500 comments, including many from people who said they also had worked for the company and outlined other instances of harassment and mistreatment.

An initial statement from Boulevard stoked anger on social media, with commenters vowing not to buy Boulevard beer. The statement said the claims of harassment had previously been investigated.
BizJournal: Boulevard president, others resign following allegations the company mistreated women

News

For more information, from various news sources:

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

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Cheers All!

-B. Kline

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