--- description: Gregg Steinhafel held himself "personally accountable" for the massive 2013 data breach that exposed millions of credit cards title: Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel Resigns After Data Breach image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Retail](/tag/retail/) ## Retail Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Target CEO Resigns Amid Fallout From Data Breach  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent May 5, 2014 12:25 PM CUT  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent May 5, 2014 12:25 PM CUT Target president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel will step down, the retail giant [said](http://pressroom.target.com/news/statement-from-targets-board-of-directors "undefined") Monday, five months a massive [data breach ](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/business/target-missed-signs-of-a-data-breach.html "undefined")over the holidays compromised the credit card information of more than 40 million customers. Target said that Steinhafel held himself “personally accountable” for the 2013 data breach, but “pledged that Target would emerge a better company.” “We are grateful to him for his tireless leadership and will always consider him a member of the Target family,” the company’s board of directors said in a statement. Chief financial officer John Mulligan will serve as interim president and CEO, while Roxanne S. Austin, who currently serves on the board of directors, will be the interim non-executive chair of the board. Steinhafel will stay on in an advisory capacity during the transition. The shakeup comes just weeks after [Target acknowledged ](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/business/target-missed-signs-of-a-data-breach.html "undefined")that its computers alerted them to the data breach, but that company officials ignored warnings of suspicious activity. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/87638/target-gregg-steinhafel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/87638/target-gregg-steinhafel/"},"headline":"Target CEO Resigns Amid Fallout From Data Breach","datePublished":"2014-05-05T12:25:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:39:00.286Z","description":"Gregg Steinhafel holds himself \"personally accountable\" for the massive breach last year that exposed tens of millions of credit cards, but Target's board credited him with steering the retail giant through the crisis and said he'll remain in an advisory role during the transition","url":"https://time.com/87638/target-gregg-steinhafel/","keywords":["Retail","Target","Hacking","Business topic","credit cards","CEO","Data breach"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/retail/","name":"Retail"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/87638/target-gregg-steinhafel/","name":"Target CEO Resigns Amid Fallout From Data Breach"}}]}] ```