Tyson Foods Heir Looks to Help Right the Family Business After His Arrest

Now, with his case resolved with a guilty plea resulting in a fine for public intoxication and criminal trespass charges, the 33-year-old Mr. Tyson is trying to help steer the Arkansas-based meat giant, as the company grapples with higher costs affecting its beef and chicken businesses. In February, Tyson posted its biggest percentage drop in quarterly profit in more than a decade. 

In addition to the business pressures, the company is also dealing with questions about its rapid turnover of executives. And the arrest of Mr. Tyson has highlighted the questions that public family-owned companies can face about corporate governance.

The Tyson family’s interests maintain a more than 70% voting stake in the company, according to the company’s 2022 annual filing. Tyson is one of the largest S&P 500 companies where the founding family has majority voting power, according to executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates.

The company declined to make Mr. Tyson available for an interview. Mr. Tyson said in February, “Business is tough right now,” at a meeting for employees. Chief Executive

Donnie King

said in February, “This is the first time I’ve seen all markets work against us all at the same time.”

Tyson, which produces one out of every 5 pounds of chicken, beef and pork sold in the U.S., in recent months has replaced the heads of several of its major business divisions. It also ousted its chief technology officer, and the company’s stock price is down roughly 34% over the past 12 months, underperforming about a 9% drop in the S&P 500 over the same period. 

Tyson said that it is confident in its growth strategy, its portfolio of brands and its executive ranks to help it navigate difficult market conditions. 

“We remain focused on operational excellence,” a company spokesman said. “We have a disciplined growth strategy and a strong, proven executive leadership team.”

Part of that leadership team is Mr. Tyson, who is considered by many in the meat industry and among Tyson employees as next in line to succeed his 69-year-old father as chairman of the company. 

Mr. Tyson, a Harvard and Stanford-educated M.B.A. graduate, represents the fourth generation to join the family business since John W. Tyson founded the poultry company in 1935. He took over the role of Tyson’s chief financial officer four weeks before his arrest, making him the youngest CFO of a Fortune 500 company at that time.

Before joining Tyson as chief sustainability officer in 2019 at age 29, he had worked in various roles in investment banking, private equity and venture capital. He has attended board meetings since he was a teenager, his father has said in past interviews.

Current and former employees say he is well-liked across the company. 

The day before his arrest, Mr. Tyson had been out tailgating for the University of Arkansas’ football game against Liberty University. In the early hours of the following day he walked to a stranger’s home and fell asleep in a bed, where he was later awakened and handcuffed by local police, according to the police report.

Mr. Tyson has apologized to investors, and told employees in a companywide email that he was getting counseling for his alcohol use. In January, he pleaded guilty to public intoxication and criminal trespass charges and paid a fine of $440 with fees, according to city officials.

He had two prior alcohol-related arrests in 2010 during his time in college. One arrest was for drinking underage with an identification that wasn’t his, and the other for public intoxication, according to police and court records.

To several Tyson current and former employees, the November arrest came as a surprise. 

Dean Banks,

a former Tyson chief executive, said he always has seen Mr. Tyson behave responsibly. 

“John’s a very bright, mature leader, and it was a pleasure to work with him,” he said.

Tyson’s internal standards policy for managers states that disciplinary action is taken for unacceptable behavior after work hours that hurts the company’s reputation. 

In a statement, the company said Mr. Tyson was disciplined after a review process was conducted pursuant to internal procedures and best practices in corporate governance. The company didn’t specify how he was disciplined. 

Mr. Tyson’s father and current chairman, John H. Tyson, has openly talked about his addiction to cocaine and alcohol in the 1980s and becoming sober in 1990, the year his son was born. And how he benefited from working at a family-controlled company.

“I can tell you the only reason I was on the payroll is because I was the son of the boss,” the elder Mr. Tyson testified at a 1998 court trial for former Agriculture Secretary

Mike Espy,

according to a transcript. “At any other company, I would have been thrown to the wolves.”

Tyson declined to make the elder Mr. Tyson available for comment. 

“It’s harder to address governance issues in general, and especially with family companies,” said

Juan Salazar,

senior engagement specialist at Pictet Asset Management, a Tyson investor.

Investment firm Aristotle Capital Management said in a March note that it decided to sell its Tyson stock in the fourth quarter of last year partly because of concerns with management changes over the past year, including the company’s decision to name the younger Mr. Tyson as financial chief. Wall Street analysts have said continual management changes at Tyson have been a concern among some investors.

Tyson’s board said in December that it had confidence in him as CFO following a review of the incident. Mr. Tyson was on the company’s quarterly earnings call a week after his arrest in November.

Mr. Tyson showed ambition in high school, telling the Har-Ber High School yearbook in Springdale, Ark., that he could see himself as a senator one day and hoped to play basketball at an Ivy League school. 

Former classmates described him as one of the popular kids, smart, an athlete and an excellent singer. He once took a Tyson private plane back from an away high school basketball tournament to take a college admissions test that same weekend, they recalled.

“I don’t want people to think that everything is just given to me,” Mr. Tyson told the 2008 yearbook. “I like being in leadership positions.”

—Sarah Nassauer and Thomas Gryta contributed to this article.

Write to Patrick Thomas at patrick.thomas@wsj.com

Now, with his case resolved with a guilty plea resulting in a fine for public intoxication and criminal trespass charges, the 33-year-old Mr. Tyson is trying to help steer the Arkansas-based meat giant, as the company grapples with higher costs affecting its beef and chicken businesses. In February, Tyson posted its biggest percentage drop in quarterly profit in more than a decade. 

In addition to the business pressures, the company is also dealing with questions about its rapid turnover of executives. And the arrest of Mr. Tyson has highlighted the questions that public family-owned companies can face about corporate governance.

The Tyson family’s interests maintain a more than 70% voting stake in the company, according to the company’s 2022 annual filing. Tyson is one of the largest S&P 500 companies where the founding family has majority voting power, according to executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates.

The company declined to make Mr. Tyson available for an interview. Mr. Tyson said in February, “Business is tough right now,” at a meeting for employees. Chief Executive

Donnie King

said in February, “This is the first time I’ve seen all markets work against us all at the same time.”

Tyson, which produces one out of every 5 pounds of chicken, beef and pork sold in the U.S., in recent months has replaced the heads of several of its major business divisions. It also ousted its chief technology officer, and the company’s stock price is down roughly 34% over the past 12 months, underperforming about a 9% drop in the S&P 500 over the same period. 

Tyson said that it is confident in its growth strategy, its portfolio of brands and its executive ranks to help it navigate difficult market conditions. 

“We remain focused on operational excellence,” a company spokesman said. “We have a disciplined growth strategy and a strong, proven executive leadership team.”

Part of that leadership team is Mr. Tyson, who is considered by many in the meat industry and among Tyson employees as next in line to succeed his 69-year-old father as chairman of the company. 

Mr. Tyson, a Harvard and Stanford-educated M.B.A. graduate, represents the fourth generation to join the family business since John W. Tyson founded the poultry company in 1935. He took over the role of Tyson’s chief financial officer four weeks before his arrest, making him the youngest CFO of a Fortune 500 company at that time.

Before joining Tyson as chief sustainability officer in 2019 at age 29, he had worked in various roles in investment banking, private equity and venture capital. He has attended board meetings since he was a teenager, his father has said in past interviews.

Current and former employees say he is well-liked across the company. 

The day before his arrest, Mr. Tyson had been out tailgating for the University of Arkansas’ football game against Liberty University. In the early hours of the following day he walked to a stranger’s home and fell asleep in a bed, where he was later awakened and handcuffed by local police, according to the police report.

Mr. Tyson has apologized to investors, and told employees in a companywide email that he was getting counseling for his alcohol use. In January, he pleaded guilty to public intoxication and criminal trespass charges and paid a fine of $440 with fees, according to city officials.

He had two prior alcohol-related arrests in 2010 during his time in college. One arrest was for drinking underage with an identification that wasn’t his, and the other for public intoxication, according to police and court records.

To several Tyson current and former employees, the November arrest came as a surprise. 

Dean Banks,

a former Tyson chief executive, said he always has seen Mr. Tyson behave responsibly. 

“John’s a very bright, mature leader, and it was a pleasure to work with him,” he said.

Tyson’s internal standards policy for managers states that disciplinary action is taken for unacceptable behavior after work hours that hurts the company’s reputation. 

In a statement, the company said Mr. Tyson was disciplined after a review process was conducted pursuant to internal procedures and best practices in corporate governance. The company didn’t specify how he was disciplined. 

Mr. Tyson’s father and current chairman, John H. Tyson, has openly talked about his addiction to cocaine and alcohol in the 1980s and becoming sober in 1990, the year his son was born. And how he benefited from working at a family-controlled company.

“I can tell you the only reason I was on the payroll is because I was the son of the boss,” the elder Mr. Tyson testified at a 1998 court trial for former Agriculture Secretary

Mike Espy,

according to a transcript. “At any other company, I would have been thrown to the wolves.”

Tyson declined to make the elder Mr. Tyson available for comment. 

“It’s harder to address governance issues in general, and especially with family companies,” said

Juan Salazar,

senior engagement specialist at Pictet Asset Management, a Tyson investor.

Investment firm Aristotle Capital Management said in a March note that it decided to sell its Tyson stock in the fourth quarter of last year partly because of concerns with management changes over the past year, including the company’s decision to name the younger Mr. Tyson as financial chief. Wall Street analysts have said continual management changes at Tyson have been a concern among some investors.

Tyson’s board said in December that it had confidence in him as CFO following a review of the incident. Mr. Tyson was on the company’s quarterly earnings call a week after his arrest in November.

Mr. Tyson showed ambition in high school, telling the Har-Ber High School yearbook in Springdale, Ark., that he could see himself as a senator one day and hoped to play basketball at an Ivy League school. 

Former classmates described him as one of the popular kids, smart, an athlete and an excellent singer. He once took a Tyson private plane back from an away high school basketball tournament to take a college admissions test that same weekend, they recalled.

“I don’t want people to think that everything is just given to me,” Mr. Tyson told the 2008 yearbook. “I like being in leadership positions.”

—Sarah Nassauer and Thomas Gryta contributed to this article.

Write to Patrick Thomas at patrick.thomas@wsj.com