Bob Evans Farms Inc. has named Mark Hood chief financial officer, effective immediately. Hood replaces Paul DeSantis, who resigned last month to pursue other interests.
Hood was previously senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Brown Shoe Company. Prior to that, he was senior vice president and chief financial officer at Panera Bread, after serving for two decades in finance and administrative roles for retail companies.
“Mark Hood brings proven leadership, financial management accounting and auditing skills, along with abundant experience in both the retail and restaurant fields, to Bob Evans,” the company’s chief executive, Steve Davis, said in a statement. “His track record and keen business judgment make him an outstanding addition to our management team. He has the background to hit the ground running, and we look forward to working with him immediately.”
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Davis and the rest of Bob Evans’ senior leadership and board of directors have faced criticism from activist investor Sandell Asset Management, which owns about 6.5 percent of the publicly traded company’s outstanding shares, for most of the past year. Sandell has called for a wholesale replacement of the board, a spinoff of the Bob Evans Foods packaged-goods business and a massive sale-leaseback transaction of the company’s real estate.
The company was originally scheduled to release fourth-quarter earnings for its fiscal year 2014 last week, but it postponed the report until July 8 in order to review its accounting of deferred income tax and fixed-asset accounts.
New Albany, Ohio-based Bob Evans owns and operates 562 namesake family-dining restaurants in 19 states.
Contact Mark Brandau at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @Mark_from_NRN
