Tyson CFO arrested for public intoxication a month into role

The chief financial officer of Tyson Foods Inc. was arrested Sunday for public intoxication and criminal trespassing.

John R. Tyson, 32, was booked early Sunday, according to the Washington County, Arkansas, sheriff’s department. He was released later that day. 

According to a report on KNWA Fox 24, Tyson was found asleep Sunday morning in a woman’s bed in her home. She didn’t know who he was and called the police.

“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 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.

This comes just a week before John R. Tyson was likely to address investors for the first time as CFO during earnings on Nov. 14.

Tyson Foods is the food industry’s second company to see an executive arrested in the past few months. Beyond Meat Inc. suspended its chief operating officer — who previously spent three decades at Tyson — in September after he allegedly bit a man’s nose.

— With assistance from Michael Hirtzer