James Hardie Fires Jack Truong, Raises Profit Forecast -- Update

By Rhiannon Hoyle

James Hardie Industries PLC said it has fired Jack Truong as chief executive for code-of-conduct violations and appointed director Harold Wiens as interim CEO.

The building materials supplier also raised its fiscal-year profit expectations, in part because of strong expectations for growth in the U.S. homebuilding market.

James Hardie, a major global supplier of fiber cement and fiber gypsum, said Mr. Truong's conduct had been investigated after employees complained about his behavior. Mr. Truong led a strategic overhaul of the company since his appointment in 2019.

Directors of the company found "Mr. Truong's conduct, while not discriminatory, extensively and materially breached the James Hardie Code of Conduct, and at a board meeting held today resolved to terminate Mr. Truong's employment, effective immediately," James Hardie said in a statement. He will receive only statutory entitlements, it added.

Mr. Truong couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

James Hardie said the search for a new chief executive would start immediately, with Mr. Wiens, an independent nonexecutive director of the company, taking the helm on an interim basis. Chairman Michael Hammes was also named executive chairman while the company seeks a new CEO.

James Hardie said it now expects adjusted net income for its fiscal year through March, 2022, to be between $605 million and $625 million, an increase on earlier guidance of between $580 million and $600 million.

That is "based on the continued, strong execution of the global strategy across all three regions and the expectation for continued residential and market growth in the U.S.," the company said. In fiscal year 2021, its adjusted net income totaled $458 million.

Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 06, 2022 17:16 ET (22:16 GMT)

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