John R. Tyson, the chief financial officer of Tyson Foods Inc. and great-grandson of the company’s founder, is “embarrassed” after being arrested Sunday for public intoxication and criminal trespassing.
Tyson, 32, in a memo to the company first reported by the Associated Press, said the conduct was “inconsistent with my personal values, the company’s values and the high expectations we hold for each other.”
Tyson was found asleep Sunday morning in a woman’s bed in her home in northwestern Arkansas, according to a report on KNWA Fox 24. She didn’t know who he was and called the police. He was booked early Sunday, according to the Washington County, Arkansas, sheriff’s department. He was released later that day.
“I made a serious mistake and this has caused me to reflect deeply on the impact my actions can have on others,” Tyson said in the memo.
Tyson was elevated to CFO effective Oct. 2. He is the son of board Chairman John H. Tyson and is a fourth-generation member of the Tyson family.
The arrest comes just a week before John R. Tyson was likely to address investors for the first time as CFO during earnings on Nov. 14, when senior executives also were set to speak with reporters.
“We’re aware of the incident and as this is a personal matter, we have no additional comment,” said Derek Burleson, a company spokesman, in an email.
Tyson Foods, the biggest US meat company by sales, is the food industry’s second company to see an executive arrested in the past few months in Arkansas.