(Reuters) -Tyson Foods has suspended its chief financial officer, John R. Tyson, after he was arrested on charges of alleged drunken driving, the company said on Thursday.
The U.S. meatpacker said Curt Calaway, a senior chief financial officer at the company, will take over as interim CFO.
Shares of the Springdale, Arkansas-based company fell 1.5% to $53.89 in afternoon trading.
Tyson, the great-grandson of company founder John W. Tyson, was arrested by University of Arkansas police and released nine hours later.
John R. Tyson, who took over as the company’s CFO in 2022, was not immediately available for comment.
The 34-year-old’s suspension comes as the meatpacker has warned that consumers are still under pressure from persistent inflation and that higher commodity costs could weigh on upcoming results.
Tyson was previously arrested for criminal trespass and public intoxication in Fayetteville, Arkansas in November 2022.
According to the 2022 Fayetteville police report, a middle-aged woman was alarmed to find Tyson, whom she did not know, sleeping in her bed when she returned home.
The company then called it a personal matter, but announced that a committee of board members would oversee and review the matter.
Corporate governance experts had also said at the time that Tyson Foods, the maker of Ball Park hot dogs, should hire an outside firm to lead an investigation into the arrest.
John R. Tyson had also apologized during a quarterly earnings call for the arrest.
(Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Juveria Tabassum; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
