Brian Cornell

Executive Chair of the Board Target

Last Reviewed: October 3, 2026

Executive Summary

Brian Cornell has been Executive Chair of Target since February 2026, after more than eleven years as its Chair and Chief Executive Officer. Target, based in Minneapolis, runs nearly 2,000 stores and a digital business, selling general merchandise and groceries to what it calls guests. When the board split the chair and CEO roles and handed the chief executive job to Michael Fiddelke, it kept Cornell as executive chair to lend his knowledge of the business through the transition. Before Target he ran PepsiCo’s Americas Foods division and worked at Sam’s Club, Walmart, Safeway and Michaels. The proxy puts the point plainly: he has been both a supplier to Target and a competitor of it.

Career Highlights

• Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Target from August 2014 through January 2026.
• Executive Chair of the Board since 1 February 2026.
• Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo Americas Foods.
• Director of Yum! Brands; past director of The Home Depot, OfficeMax and Polaris.
• Executive committee member of the National Retail Federation.

Professional Journey

Cornell spent more than 30 years in leadership roles at retail and consumer-product companies before and during his time at Target, according to the 2026 proxy, including three chief executive roles and more than two decades doing business in North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. His career included roles at Safeway, Michaels Stores, Wal-Mart Stores and its Sam’s Club warehouse business, and at PepsiCo, where he was chief executive of the Americas Foods division.

He became Target’s chair and chief executive in August 2014 and held both roles through January 2026, a period in which the company built its stores into fulfillment hubs; its fiscal 2025 annual report says stores fulfilled more than 97 percent of merchandise sales in each of the last three years.

On 1 February 2026 the board separated the two roles. Michael Fiddelke, previously chief operating officer, became chief executive and joined the board, and Cornell continued as chair in an executive capacity. The proxy explains the structure as letting the new CEO focus on the business while the board draws on Cornell’s industry knowledge during the transition; shareholders re-elected him as a director in June 2026.

Outside Target he is a director of Yum! Brands and has served on the boards of The Home Depot, OfficeMax and Polaris Industries. He sits on the executive committee of the National Retail Federation and on The Business Council, and previously chaired the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

The proxy notes that under Target’s corporate governance guidelines no former chief executive is to serve on the board for an extended time, with the timeframe set by the board for each case. No end date for his executive chair role has been announced.

Education

No education is established in the sources read for this profile, so the field is left empty rather than estimated.