Gustavo Arnal, the chief financial officer for the struggling home goods retail giant Bed, Bath & Beyond, plunged to his death Friday in New York City. He was 52. (Photo courtesy of Bed, Bath & Beyond)
UNION, N.J. — Gustavo Arnal, the chief financial officer of retail chain Bed Bath & Beyond, has died, the company confirmed Sunday.
The company said Arnal died on Friday.
Arnal died in what looked to be a suicide, according to the New York Police Department. He was found near his residence, 56 Leonard Street, a skyscraper known as the Jenga building because of its stacked architectural design, and “appeared to suffer from injuries indicative from a fall from an elevated position,” police said in a statement.
Emergency medical officers pronounced him dead on the scene, and the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office is working to determine how he died, the statement said. The New York Post reported earlier on Arnal’s death.
Arnal joined Bed Bath & Beyond as its chief financial officer in May 2020 as part of an executive shake-up led by the then-CEO, Mark Tritton, who left in June. Arnal was previously chief financial officer at Avon and held senior positions at Walgreens Boots Alliance and at Procter & Gamble, where he spent more than 20 years of his career.
“Gustavo will be remembered by all he worked with for his leadership, talent and stewardship of our Company. I am proud to have been his colleague, and he will be truly missed by all of us at Bed Bath & Beyond and everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him,” said Harriet Edelman, independent chair of the company’s board, in Sunday’s statement.
Bed Bath & Beyond has faced turbulence recently: Its shares made a monstrous run from $5.77 to $23.08 over a little more than two weeks in August, in trading reminiscent of last year’s meme-stock craze, when out-of-favor companies suddenly became darlings of smaller-pocketed investors. On Wednesday, the company said it would shutter stores and lay off workers in a bid to turn around its beleaguered business.
The home goods retailer based in Union, New Jersey, said it will close about 150 of its namesake stores and slash its workforce by 20%.
Arnal sold roughly 55,000 shares in Bed Bath & Beyond on Aug. 16 and 17, as part of a trading plan he had signed in April. In August, Bed Bath & Beyond disclosed in a regulatory filing that Arnal and the retailer were being sued by certain shareholders. The retailer said it was in the “early stages of evaluating the complaint” but, based on its current understanding, “believes the claims are without merit.”
The New York Times News Service contributed to this report.
Originally published at Associated Press