Jeffrey Geygan, who has worked as Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory’s Interim CEO since May of 2024, officially resigned from the position Friday.
Geygan informed the RMCF Board of Directors of his planned departure on June 21, according to a Form 8-K filed Thursday – a report publicly traded companies are required to file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to announce prominent, unscheduled corporate happenings that shareholders and the public should be made aware of.
The form, which was signed by Chief Financial Officer Carrie Cass, said Geygan will remain a member of the RMCF board.
Though he was officially operating in an interim capacity, he spoke to The Durango Herald in January as if he were a de facto permanent CEO. He said the board wanted to bring him on permanently, but would have had to increase his pay to do so, and said he was content to retain the interim title to save the company money.
“You (the board) can bring me on as permanent, but it's gonna cost you a lot more, and I'm not looking to increase our expenses,” he said. “... Let's see, I worked on Christmas, I worked on New Year's, I worked on Thanksgiving. I work seven days a week. If I'm not awake, I'm dreaming about it. I would say I'm pretty committed.”
Geygan had grand plans for the company when he stepped into the role over two years ago.
He overhauled the brand’s visual marketing, revamped the company’s mascot, Truffles the bear, headed up an initiative to get Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory brand ice cream into stores, and pursued staffing changes that involved a “fair amount of turnover,” in his words.
Geygan told the Herald in January that the staffing changes included firing some employees, but declined to share specifics about how many employees were fired, how many quit and how many new employees were hired since his tenure began.
Geygan also described plans in January for 34 new store locations across the U.S., including at least one in Fresno, California, nine in Florida within the next three years, and another in Terminal B of the Houston International Airport.
Al Harper, owner of American Heritage Railways and a major investor of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, told the Herald in January that he had high hopes for the company’s outlook under Geygan’s leadership.
“They’ve cured the quick, real immediate problems, and now they’re in that process of the long-range plan – language, marketing,” he said at the time. “So, am I optimistic? Yeah. I think they’re going to do fine.”
Harper recently sold a portion of his stock amid a less-than shining Q4 2026 report that showed a $3.4 million loss and a 23.6% year-over-year revenue decline.
Harper sold nearly 190,000 shares over about three months, reducing the investor group’s stake from 13% in 2024 to around 8.7% by May of this year.
He told The Durango Herald earlier this month that the sales were done as a prudent business move made to take advantage of a temporary stock price rise, rather than an attempt to distance himself from involvement with RMCF.
Geygan told the Herald in January that he “wasn’t going to be here (with RMCF) forever,” but that “you’ll know it (the company) is fixed when you see we have a new CEO.”
“I’m 65 years old. Guys like me retire, and I’ll do that,” he said. “At some point I’m going to say, ‘Look, it’s fixed. I now get to go back to South Carolina, get (to have) my sleepy little life where I manage money and harass ill-behaved companies’ – which I really like. But for probably the next couple years, I’m going to be sitting around here making sure we get it right.”
No further information on the company’s plans for seeking a new CEO were available Friday, and Geygan did not immediately respond to request for comment.
epond@durangoherald.com
