Dive Brief:

• Dentsply Sirona appointed John Fortson, currently CFO of metal and coatings manufacturer Kymera International, as its next CFO, effective July 20, according to a securities filing and press release Thursday. 
• In early November the dental supply company’s previous CFO Matthew Garth, a former Scotts Miracle-Gro finance chief, abruptly left the company after six months on the job, CFO Dive previously reported.  
• Within weeks, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company named Michael Pomeroy, a veteran of GE, as its interim CFO, according to a separate securities filing at that time. Pomeroy was to support the CEO Daniel Scavilla, who was to continue to serve as the company’s principal financial officer until a permanent CFO was identified.
   

Dive Insight:

Fortson, 58, has more than 25 years of leadership experience in finance, operations, and strategy and has served over a decade as either CFO or CEO of global manufacturing and industrial firms, according to a Thursday press release. Earlier in his career, he served in the U.S. Army as a Ranger. 

"Following an extensive search, John emerged as the clear choice to serve as our next CFO given his rare combination of public company CFO experience, CEO perspective, capital markets expertise, and a proven track record of driving growth and operational excellence at scale,” Scavilla said in a statement in the release, noting that he would help advance the company’s return-to-growth plan. 

Fortson’s compensation package includes an annual base salary of $780,000, a $500,000 signing bonus that must be repaid if his employment ends within 12 months for any reason other than involuntary “not for cause” termination, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is also eligible to receive a sign-on equity award with a target value of $700,000 and next year will be eligible for an annual equity award with a target value of $2.5 million.

Fortson is joining a company that is looking to pivot to growth after grappling with leadership turnover and accounting woes in recent years. 

In 2022, Dentsply announced an accounting probe into actions including its financial reporting under its previous CFO, Jorge Gomez who had departed for the pharmaceutical giant Moderna.

Gomez left Moderna after just a day in the pharmaceutical company’s top finance seat in a move that coincided with Dentsply’s announcement of the internal investigation. Dentsply found no intentional wrongdoing as part of the probe, but noted the former CFO had violated part of its ethics and business conduct code, CFO Dive reported at the time.

Last October, Dentsply got good news: the SEC announced the completion of its investigation into the company related to Dentsply’s internal probe begun in May 2022 and said it did not intend to recommend enforcement actions, according to a filing.