Kraft Brings Back James Kehoe, This Time as CFO

Kraft Foods said Tuesday that James Kehoe is returning to the company as CFO, less than a week after the food-maker said CFO Teri List-Stoll would leave the company. Kehoe previously spent 25 years at Kraft.

Kehoe will report to Chairman and CEO John Cahill.

Kehoe is returning to Kraft after less than two months as chief financial and administrative officer at Canada’s Gildan Activewear. Before Gildan, which he joined Jan. 1, Kehoe was senior vice president of operating excellence at Mondelez International.

“While the timing of this change is not ideal, the opportunity with Kraft is something I could not pass up given my extensive history with the company and its people,” Kehoe said in a statement.

Kehoe’s most recent role at Kraft was as senior vice president of corporate finance. He joined Kraft in 1988 and left his most recent role there in 2013, when he went to work at Mondelez after Kraft split into two companies, Kraft and Mondelez.

“James knows the company inside and out,” Cahill said in a statement. “I have tremendous confidence in his ability to lead our finance team and take Kraft to a new level as we look to accelerate our pace of change.”

The maker of Kraft cheese, Oscar Mayer meats and Planters nuts has vowed to speed changes after months of poor results. Cahill, who was already chairman, took over the CEO role from Tony Vernon in December.

List-Stoll, who joined Kraft in late 2013, will work with Kehoe as he moves into the role.

The company, based outside Chicago, announced several other executive changes last week, including the departure of Chief Marketing Officer Deanie Elsner.

This article appeared in print in the February 18th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.