It’s been seven months since a major data breach sent shares of Equifax tumbling, and the company is still pulling itself together. On Wednesday, the credit bureau announced it was appointing former GE exec Mark Begor to take over the troubled company’s affairs.
The hire comes six months after Equifax’s former CEO Richard Smith resigned and left Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr. leading in the interim. He will “retire” from Equifax early next year as Begor takes over the role from him next month.
Most recently, Begor was at Warburg Pincus LLC, a US private equity firm, which he joined after 35 years at General Electric where he operated in a variety of roles including as CEO of GE Energy Management and CEO of GE Capital Real Estate.
Begor comes aboard as the company attempts to build back public trust or at least stay out of the news long enough for people to forget about their incompetence. Equifax shares have surprisingly only dipped around 18 percent since the admission of a massive breach which had released the personal data of over 140 million customers. The company’s public image has taken a much heavier hit.
Earlier this month, an exec was hit with insider trader charges, alleging he used non-public information of the undisclosed hack to sell $1 million in shares before the company’s admission sent the stock price tumbling.
“The team has made meaningful progress in the last several months to address a number of well-publicized issues while continuing to focus on delivering differentiated new products and advanced analytics to support our customers, Begor said in a statement released by Equifax. “…we will continue to invest in and strengthen our IT and data security. As a custodian of consumer and customer information, protecting that data is a central priority for Equifax and for me personally.”