Credit-monitoring firm Equifax Inc named former General Electric Co executive Mark Begor as chief executive officer on Wednesday, as it looks to regain investor confidence after being hit by a massive data breach.
Begor's appointment comes about six months after Richard Smith's departure as CEO following mounting criticism over the attack that plunged the company into crisis.
The company had appointed Paulino do Rego Barros Jr. as interim CEO. Paulino will retire from Equifax in early 2019, the company said.
Begor, 59, was most recently a managing director with private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Before that he worked with GE for 35 years in various roles.
The breach, disclosed in September, prompted outrage from politicians and consumer advocates, a string of government probes into the company and the departure of top executives.
Equifax said in September that hackers had stolen personally identifiable information of U.S., UK and Canadian consumers, including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses driver’s license and credit card numbers.
The company's shares are down nearly 19 pct since the disclosure of the cyber breach. The stock was up 1.4 percent on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty) ((Parikshit.Mishra@thomsonreuters.com; +91 80 6749 6026;))
