Securities litigation firm Block & Leviton announced on Tuesday that it had filed a class-action lawsuit against Mattel and its CFO, Joseph Euteneur. The suit claims that the defendants misled investors regarding the toy company’s financial accounting in the last two quarters of 2017, as well as the efficacy of its internal controls.
Bed Bath & Beyond on Tuesday denied a Seeking Alpha report that the retail chain had fired CFO Robyn D’Elia and hired former Target finance chief Cathy Smith to replace her. New CEO Mark Tritton did let go six other senior executives last week, but D’Elia, who was named to the finance chief post in June 2018, was not on the list and as of Friday morning was apparently still employed at the company.
David Anderson
Nielsen announced on Monday that CFO and chief operating officer David Anderson has resigned in advance of the company’s separation into two firms. The former CEO of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, he’d been hired in September 2018 to lead finance at Nielsen. While an executive recruiting firm seeks Anderson’s successor, the company has appointed Christopher Taft as senior vice president and corporate controller. Taft previously served Nielsen as interim corporate controller, assistant global controller, and vice president of finance since joining the company in 2016.
Steven Bisgay will be taking the finance reins at brokerage and financial technology firm BCG Partners, effective Jan. 1. He’s been CFO at financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald since 2015.
Automotive electronics supplier Visteon has hired as its new finance chief Jerome Rouquet, a former CFO at competitor Federal-Mogul, before it was acquired by Tenneco in September 2018. He then became senior vice president of finance, Motorparts, for Tenneco.
Akerna, a publicly traded software company in the cannabis industry, has terminated Ruth Ann Kraemer as CFO. Akerna went public in June through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, and its stock has fluctuated wildly since. Shares more than tripled on the stock’s second day of trading closing at $49.80, before plummeting below $4 a share in November. Kraemer’s replacement is John Fowle, who had been finance chief at REV360, a SaaS and business services company.
The CFO of Canadian retailer Birks Group for the past five years, Pasquale Di Lillo, has resigned, effective Jan. 17, to “pursue personal interests.” His replacement is Katia Fontana, who most recently ran finance at Avenir Global, a holding company for communications and public relations firms. Before that she was she was finance chief at apparel retailer Groupe Dynamite, where she worked from 2004 to 2018.
Christopher Squire has been promoted to finance chief and vice president of corporate services at insurer Western Health. He most recently was regional director of financial services and budgeting.
