Academy Sports and Outdoors, based in Katy, has promoted Carl Ford, Senior VP, Finance to be its CFO. He replaces Michael Mullican, who was appointed President of the company at the beginning of June.
Academy went public in September 2020 with an IPO share price of $13. It now trades at $57, though that is about $10 off its 52-week high as comparable net sales in its latest quarter were down 7% . It currently has 269 stores in 18 states.
Mr. Ford joined the company in January 2019. Prior to joining the company, he spent 15 years at Belk, a department store chain based in Charlotte, NC, ending up as the VP of Financial Planning and Analysis. He started his career at Deloitte and Touche.
Mr. Ford will have a base salary of $500,000 and will receive equity awards valued at $1 million, which are a mixture of time and performance-based restricted stock units.
Mr. Ford’s promotion is the latest of a series of changes at the company. Back in April, Ken Hicks, who had been CEO since May 2018, announced he would transition to Executive Chairman, effective June 1. In turn, Steve Lawrence, the Chief Merchandising Officer, was promoted to CEO. Matt McCabe, Senior VP, General Merchandise Management of Footwear, was promoted to Mr. Lawrence’s role.
Mr. Mullican’s role as President covers Strategic planning, logistics & supply chain, legal, compliance, and risk management functions.