Fortune Brands lands in Chicago after a boardroom shakeup trip to Arizona

Fortune Brands flew from Nogales International Airport to Chicago Executive Airport late on June 17, touching down just after 8:30 p.m. Central. The roughly three-hour hop came one day after the company's Legacy 500 had flown from the Chicago area to the Arizona border town, a route not on the firm's list of recurring business destinations.

The same week, Fortune Brands is still absorbing the aftershocks of a leadership implosion triggered by activist investor Ed Garden. Per an SEC filing from March, Garden joined the board and pushed out then-CEO Nicholas Fink, who had just announced a relocation mandate for hundreds of employees before quitting for a job at Constellation Brands, as Fast Company reported. Amit Banati, the successor chosen in February, never officially took the role, walked away with an $18.4 million payout, and the board appointed interim CEO David Barry.

The Nogales trip—on the U.S.-Mexico border—doesn't match any known Fortune Brands facility or supplier location, but the timing suggests it may have involved site visits tied to supply chain or manufacturing reviews that often accompany activist-driven restructurings. The company's aircraft has been unusually active in June, logging hops to Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania as the search for a permanent CEO continues.