The Chemours Co. announced Thursday it placed its CEO, CFO and controller on leave as the company conducts an internal review of its financial reporting processes.
The chemical maker placed President and CEO Mark Newman, SVP and CFO Jonathan Lock, and VP, Controller and Principal Accounting Officer Camela Wisel on administrative leave while the board of directors’ audit committee and an independent outside counsel complete a review, according to a Feb. 29 Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The financial probe includes auditing Chemours’ processes for reviewing reports made to its ethics hotline and the company’s management practices for working capital, including “related impact on metrics within the Company’s incentive plans, certain non-GAAP metrics included in filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission or otherwise publicly released, and related disclosures,” according to the SEC filing.
Chemours is auditing “one or more potential material weaknesses” in its internal financial review systems as of Dec. 23, 2023, the filing states, “with respect to maintaining effective controls related to the control environment, including the effectiveness of the “tone at the top” set by certain members of senior management.”
As a result of the internal review, Chemours is delaying filing its 2023 annual financial report to the SEC, which was due Feb. 28. The company initially rescheduled its filing to be released on Feb. 28, rather than Feb. 14.
While the audit committee completes its review, the chemical maker appointed Denise Dignam as Interim CEO and Matt Abbott as Interim CFO, the chemical said in a Feb. 29 press release. Dignam has served as president of Chemours’ titanium technologies business since March 2023, and Abbott has served as SVP and chief enterprise transformation officer since June 2023.
Lock served as CFO for less than a year, taking up the post in June 2023.
News of the internal probe comes less than two weeks after Chemours announced that the president of its board of directors, Sandra Phillips Rogers, would not seek reelection and would only serve out the remainder of her term. It also announced that former Delta Airlines executive Pamela Fletcher would be joining the board.
Kate Magill contributed to this story.
