By James McNair
Enquirer staff writer

Paul Chellgren

COVINGTON - Paul Chellgren, whose affair with an employee cost him his job as chairman and CEO of Ashland Inc. in 2002, is single again.

A divorce decree issued Tuesday in Kenton County Circuit Court dissolved the 33-year marriage of Paul and Sheila Chellgren. Paul, 61, lives in Crescent Springs. Sheila, 64, now lives in Washington, where they were married in 1970.

The couple reached a settlement agreement that was not included in the court file. But the divorce decree did disclose that, prior to the settlement, Paul Chellgren's net worth exceeded $25 million.

Chellgren had been with Ashland, a Fortune 500 oil and chemicals company, for 28 years. In August 2002, the board dismissed him, saying he dated a secretary in violation of the company's policy on relationships between supervisors and subordinates.

Although Chellgren no longer works at the company's headquarters on the Covington waterfront, he technically remains on the payroll. A two-year consulting contract that kicked in on Nov. 15, 2002, provides for him to be paid $2,000 a day if he is called upon for his services. That, however, has never happened, an Ashland spokeswoman said Friday.

The secretary, who was never publicly identified, received an unspecified settlement when she left the company in July 2002.

E-mail jmcnair@enquirer.com