John Randal Tyson, the former Tyson Foods CFO whose recent arrests made headlines last year, has a new high-profile job at his family’s meatpacking company.
The scion has been appointed to the company’s board, along with his sister Olivia, according to a corporate statement. “Both have been involved in the company for many years,” it said. “They will be the fourth generation of Tyson family members to sit on the board of the company founded by their great-grandfather, John W. Tyson.”
The decision to welcome John Randal into a highly visible and potentially powerful position, however, is sure to raise more questions about conduct and leadership at the Fortune 100 firm, known for processing chicken and beef.
The 35-year-old was suspended from his former role and ultimately replaced as CFO last summer after pleading guilty to a charge of driving while impaired. It was his second dust-up with the law in as many years. In 2022, he was arrested for public intoxication and criminal trespassing after he was found stripped down to his boxer shorts and sleeping in a stranger’s bed at a house near the bar district in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he lives. He also pleaded guilty to that charge and paid fines.
Tyson survived the first incident after publicly apologizing for it on an investor call. After his second arrest, he was able to remain an employee at Tyson, but lost the C-suite role that had put him in position to one day grab the corner office.
Most executives would not be invited to the board of a company worth $20 billion after enduring two high-profile arrests. However, the Tyson family owns 99.9% of Tyson Foods Class B shares, and John Randal and Olivia’s billionaire father, John H. Tyson, is the board chair.
Tyson Foods did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
John Randal studied economics at Harvard University, completed his MBA at Stanford in 2018, and briefly worked in banking for JPMorgan Chase. He joined Tyson Foods in 2019 as chief sustainability officer and was promoted to CFO in 2022, when he was 32 years old.
When John Randal lost his CFO role following his second run-in with the law last year, he took health leave, but was allowed to remain a senior vice president at the company. A recent filing shows he was set up with an annual base salary of $200,000 and an equity award that was nearly equal to that amount.
Both John Randal and Olivia will now be paid as Tyson Foods directors, according to that same filing. The company’s most recent proxy statement, from 2024, shows that Tyson board members earn a base pay of $125,000, plus $190,000 in deferred stock awards.
