Ex-Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson quits Mayo Clinic, MPR boards amid donation controversy
Brad Anderson, the former CEO of Best Buy, is stepping down as a board member of multiple Minnesota companies.
In the past few days, it's been reported that he's resigned as a board member of the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota Public Radio, and Carlson.
In a filings Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), both General Mills and Waste Management Inc., confirmed Anderson had also resigned from their boards.
Anderson has been under pressure since this piece from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets blog was published last week.
It revealed that $25,000 in contributions from Anderson to a group called Secrue America Now had been used to produce several anti-Muslim videos that were used in far-right social media campaigns.
The OpenSecrets blog notes that Secure America Now (SAN) used Google and Facebook to target voters in swing states who were most receptive to their message prior to the 2016 elections.
Also listed as a $25,000 donor to the group was an investment company headed up by Best Buy founder Richard Schulze.
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Both Anderson and Schulze told the Star Tribune that they had no idea that their money was being used to fund extremist content, and said they would no longer contribute to the organization.
Speaking with MPR News, Anderson said he only contributed to SAN after meeting with its president, where they discussed the future security of Israel, and wasn't aware of the anti-Islamic campaigns it ran until this past Thursday.
Among the Secure America Now group's biggest contributors was Robert Mercer, the billionaire investor and major conservative donor who once had a stake in Breitbart News.
In a statement to MPR News, MPR board chairman David Murphy said he was "saddened" Anderson was stepping down, noting that the organization hadn't asked for his resignation.
