- Tyson Foods' former CFO John Randal Tyson isn't returning to his position after a DWI charge.
- Tyson, an heir to the founder, was suspended following the charge in June.
- Curt Calaway, who was the interim CFO, will take over as CFO permanently, the company has said.
Tyson Foods' chief financial officer is out of his job — but not out of the company.
John Randal Tyson, an heir of the founder, John W. Tyson, was suspended from the company after being arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated in June. That marked his second alcohol-related arrest since his CFO appointment in 2022.
On Thursday, the meat juggernaut announced that its longtime staffer Curt Calaway, who was the interim CFO, would take over.
The food company said in a release that Tyson would stay on as an employee but would be on health-related leave.
Tyson was appointed to the role in 2022 at age 32, making him the youngest CFO of any Fortune 500 company at the time. The fourth-generation Tyson family member became CFO three years after he joined the company. He previously worked in investment banking at JPMorgan and graduated from Harvard and Stanford.
Tyson Foods didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
The company, known for its Hillshire and Sara Lee brands, is worth $23 billion, and the Tysons are worth $3.1 billion, according to Forbes.
Two arrests in recent years
During the first incident in 2022, Tyson was found intoxicated and asleep in a stranger's bed at about 2 a.m., BI previously reported.
The home where Tyson was found belonged to a woman who said she thought Tyson came through her unlocked front door. He was released later that evening after being charged with public intoxication and criminal trespass.
In June, Tyson was charged with driving while intoxicated and careless driving after he misjudged a turn and rode up onto a curb.
The scion's run-ins with the law are not the company's only controversy in recent months.
In September 2023, The New York Times Magazine published an investigation that found children as young as 14 were knowingly employed as overnight cleaning staff at plants run by companies including Tyson Foods. Some were gravely injured on jobs that federal law prohibits children from doing.
Tyson Foods didn't respond to a request for comment from BI at the time.
The Department of Labor subsequently investigated child labor at Tyson and Perdue Farms as part of a broader probe. No charges have been filed.
In November, Tyson Foods recalled almost 30,000 pounds of its frozen dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets after complaints that the nuggets contained small metal pieces, according to the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Correction: August 30, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Tyson Foods' new CFO. It's Curt Calaway, not Curt Callaway.
