John R. Tyson, Tyson Foods Inc.’s chief financial officer and son of the meat giant’s chairman, was arrested over the weekend after authorities said he fell asleep in the wrong house.
Mr. Tyson, 32 years old, was found asleep in a woman’s bed at her home in Fayetteville, Ark., on Sunday morning, according to a preliminary arrest report filed by the Fayetteville Police Department. He was arrested for criminal trespass and public intoxication, according to the report, and booked at the Washington County Detention Center. He was released Sunday evening.
In a companywide email Monday, Mr. Tyson apologized for his actions and said that he was getting counseling on alcohol usage.
“I am embarrassed for personal conduct that is inconsistent with my personal values, the company’s values, and the high expectations we hold for each other here at Tyson Foods,” Mr. Tyson said.
A spokesman for Tyson Foods said the company was aware of the incident, and because it is a personal matter the company had no additional comment.
Mr. Tyson, the great-grandson of Tyson Foods’s founder, was promoted to the CFO role for the $24 billion meat company in September and took over the job at the start of October. He is the youngest chief financial officer serving at a company in the S&P 500 or Fortune 500, according to Crist Kolder, an executive-search firm.
Before taking over as CFO, he had been serving as Tyson’s executive vice president of strategy and chief sustainability officer, roles he still holds.
The company’s shares closed slightly lower Monday, while major U.S. stock indexes rose by about 1%.
The Fayetteville Police Department’s report said that the woman told police that she thought Mr. Tyson came in through an unlocked front door, and that she didn’t know him. The report said that police attempted to wake Mr. Tyson but that, after briefly sitting up, he lay back down and tried to resume sleeping and that there was an odor of intoxicants on his breath and body.
Mr. Tyson’s arrest was earlier reported by KNWA/Fox 24 in Northwest Arkansas.
Mr. Tyson joined Tyson in September 2019, after earning a master’s of business administration degree from Stanford University in 2018. He has held various roles in investment banking, private equity, and venture capital, including at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Some in the meat industry have pegged Mr. Tyson as a future leader of the company, as either the CEO or chairman. Mr. Tyson has said he is focused on fulfilling his current duties.
The Tyson family’s interests maintain an approximate 71% voting stake at the company, according to the company’s latest annual filing, through holdings of Class B stock that hold 10 times the voting power of the publicly held Class A shares. Dual-class stock arrangements, which grant such “supervoting” rights to a separate class of stock not available to the general public, allow holders of a minority equity stake to control a company.
Mr. Tyson’s arrest is the second high-profile incident involving a protein company executive in recent months. Plant-based burger maker Beyond Meat Inc. last month parted ways with its operating chiefDoug Ramsey, a former Tyson Foods executive, who had been suspended after his arrest in September for allegedly biting a man’s nose and threatening to kill him. Both Mr. Ramsey’s and Mr. Tyson’s arrests occurred in Arkansas’ Washington County, according to police records.
Tyson, which slaughters and processes around 37 million chickens and hundreds of thousands of hogs and cattle each week, this fall has overhauled its management team, shifting several executives into new roles. In addition to adding the CFO role to Mr. Tyson’s duties, the company named Stewart Glendinning, its previous CFO, as president of prepared foods after the division’s previous leader departed. The company’s chief legal officer, Amy Tu, also took on the role of running Tyson’s international business.
Profits at Tyson have come under pressure in recent months as the company grapples with higher costs for livestock feed, fuel and labor. Profit margins for the company’s beef business have declined as consumer demand for more expensive cuts of meat ebb, while the prices meatpackers pay to ranchers have gone up. Nearly 40% of Tyson’s $47 billion in fiscal 2021 sales came from its beef business.
Tyson’s net income for the quarter ended July 2 was flat compared with a year earlier, and its sales increased to $13.5 billion, though volumes declined 2%. The company is scheduled to report financial results for its most recent quarter on Nov. 14. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect the company to post a profit of $1.75 per share, down from $3.71 per share for the same period a year ago.
Last month Tyson said it would close several of its corporate offices in Illinois and South Dakota that together housed roughly 1,000 employees. Employees will be given the chance to relocate to the company’s Springdale, Ark., headquarters in early 2023.