Dive Brief:
- Hanesbrands announced Tuesday that its current interim finance chief Scott Lewis will be taking on the role on a permanent basis, effective immediately, according to a company statement.
- Lewis succeeds Michael Dastague, who stepped down from the role effective February 28 due to “family reasons.” At the time, the company had hired an executive search firm to find a successor while Lewis stepped in, according to a company statement from January.
- Lewis is taking the finance helm as the Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based company is still grappling with the aftereffects of a ransomware attack on May 24, 2022, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company was named in two pending putative class action lawsuits related to the incident — both of which allege, among other things,”negligence and negligence per se,” the SEC filing states.
Dive Insight:
During the quarter ended April 1, the brand incurred no net costs related to the ransomware attack, according to the filing. The company said that it “is vigorously defending the remaining pending matters and believes the cases are without merit.”
Lewis led the refinancing of the company’s debt earlier this year. He has also been at the interim finance seat more than once, according to the company statement — he previously had the job from January 2020 through April 2021.
In his time at Hanesbrands, he has also served as chief accounting officer since 2015, and will continue on with those duties in addition to his CFO responsibilities, the statement said.
“On a personal level, I appreciate his partnership and look forward to working with him more closely to execute on our strategic priorities and Full Potential Plan,” Steve Bratspies, Hanesbrands CEO, said in the statement.
When the company announced Dastague’s departure back in January, it noted that “Dastugue’s departure is not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies, or practices,” the statement said.
