Timothy Skidmore, the chief financial officer at CHS Inc., will retire at the end of the fiscal year.
The Inver Grove Heights-based co-op, a global grain, energy and food company, said Monday that Skidmore will remain with the company through the filing of its final financial reports for the 2019 fiscal year, which ends Aug. 31.
"We would like to thank Tim for his dedicated service to CHS, his focus on building a strong finance organization to support the changing needs of the company and his commitment to adding value to our owners," Chief Executive Jay Debertin said in a statement. "Tim also made strengthening relationships with owners a priority. He spent time listening to and talking with owners, always communicating our focus on maintaining a strong balance sheet."
Skidmore, 58, has been with CHS since 2013, when he was hired as an executive vice president and chief financial officer. Before that he spent 13 years working for the Campbell Soup Co. and 15 years at DuPont.
"I'm honored and humbled to have served CHS through such an important time in our evolution," Skidmore said in a statement. "I have every confidence in the finance team to continue the good work we've begun."
A search for the company's next chief financial officer will begin immediately, CHS said Monday. The company offered no further detail on the change.
CHS executives last fall uncovered an employee's financial misstatements that had led the company to overstate profits over five fiscal years, leading to a revision that lowered profits by $158 million late last year. A trader inflated the value of rail-freight contracts, lied to an auditor about it and was fired. Dan Mack, the vice president of rail transportation and terminal operations, then resigned. Debertin in December cited a "lack of controls" for the incident.
