Eli Lilly Dumps CFO After Inappropriate Communication Allegations Arise

Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY) is shuffling the executive deck on Tuesday after allegations about inappropriate communication arose against Chief Financial Officer Josh Smiley. Note that Smiley has resigned as senior vice president and CFO and will be leaving the company.

The pharmaceutical firm announced that Anat Ashkenazi would be appointed as senior vice president and CFO. Ashkenazi most recently served in the role of senior vice president, controller and CFO of Lilly Research Laboratories.

Management was recently made aware of allegations of an inappropriate personal relationship between Smiley and an employee. Eli Lilly immediately engaged external counsel to conduct a thorough, independent investigation. So far, this investigation has revealed consensual though inappropriate personal communications between Smiley and certain Eli Lilly employees and behavior that management concluded exhibited poor judgment by Smiley and not representative of core company values.

Eli Lilly was sure to mention that this inappropriate conduct was not related to financial controls, financial statements or any other business matters or judgments.

Under the terms of his separation agreement, Smiley will be available to assist in the transition.

Excluding Tuesday’s move, Eli Lilly stock had outperformed the broad markets with a gain of about 22% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock was up closer to 41%.

Eli Lilly stock traded down about 1.6% to $202.45, in a 52-week range of $117.06 to $218.00. The consensus price target is $213.79.

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