Archer Daniels Midland said Wednesday it appointed Monish Patolawala — most recently the CFO of industrial product maker 3M — as its executive vice president and CFO, effective Aug. 1. Patolawala has previously served as CFO of GE Healthcare and GE Transportation.

The global grain trader’s financial reporting has been under fire since January when the Chicago, Illinois-based company announced an internal investigation into certain accounting practices, abruptly placed its then CFO and senior vice president Vikram Luthar on administrative leave, and tapped Ismael Roig to step up as interim. In April, the company said Luthar would resign in September.  

Patolawala will be responsible for global finance and accounting, global business services, global technology, and enterprise strategy, the company said. The new hire suggests the company, which said in March that it was continuing to cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation that sparked the company’s internal probe into its own accounting practices, is seeking to begin a new chapter. 

Handing the finance reins to Patolawala “signals the board wanted to hire an outside CFO candidate as a way to start fresh following the accounting issues,” Seth Goldstein, an analyst and equity strategist at Morningtar Research Services, said in an email response to questions. 

In a separate statement Wednesday, 3M said Patolawala would be resigning effective July 31, noting that he would stay on through the end of the month to help with the transition and that the company had initiated a CFO succession process.

In Patolawala, 54, ADM is getting a veteran finance leader who has been CFO at industrial product maker 3M for about four years, according to his LinkedIn account and a securities filing by ADM. During his 3M tenure, Patolawala helped the St. Paul, Minnesota-based company navigate the spin-off of its health-care business Solventum, as well as close multiple billion-dollar settlements over the company’s role in contaminated drinking water, Bloomberg reported. 

He also had experience dealing with an SEC investigation. Last year, 3M agreed to pay over $6.5 million to resolve charges that it violated the books and records and internal controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with SEC findings that a China-based subsidiary funded trips of Chinese government officials to induce them to purchase 3M products, according to the SEC. The company agreed to pay the disgorgement pulse prejudgment interest without admitting or denying the findings.  

ADM CEO Juan Luciano highlighted Patolawala’s extensive experience and track record leading global, sophisticated finance and technology organizations, calling him a “strong fit” for ADM, according to a statement contained in the company release. 

For his part Patolawala, who like ADM’s previous CFO Luthar also grew up in India, called out his personal connection to the company’s products in a statement included in the release. 

“It is an honor to join ADM as CFO at an important point in the Company’s trajectory,” Patolawala said in a statement. “As a child growing up in India, I witnessed severe poverty and hunger firsthand, and that’s what makes me so passionate about the important work that ADM is doing to feed the world through its purpose of unlocking the power of nature to enrich the quality of life.”    

Patolawala is taking ADM’s finance reins as scrutiny of the company’s accounting practices has broadened this year. The accounting matter will likely be a top priority for the incoming CFO, Goldstein said.

When announcing the probe in January, ADM said the investigation was being conducted by outside counsel and the board’s audit committee regarding accounting practices related to intersegment transactions in its Nutrition reporting segment.

Then in its 10-K filing in March, the company said it also had received “voluntary document requests” from the Department of Justice focused primarily on the same subject matter and that the DOJ had directed grand jury subpoenas to certain current and former company employees. At the time, the company also identified a material weakness in its internal control over financial reporting related to intersegment sales and said it corrected what it called “immaterial errors” related to the classification of some intrasegment revenues, according to the securities filing.

Patolawala’s initial compensation at ADM will include an annual base salary of $1.43 million, a target annual bonus opportunity of $1.92 million and an annual equity award with an approximate target grant date value of $6.95 million, according to the securities filing. He will also receive one-time “make-whole” awards comprised of a $1.4 million cash incentive payable in January and an equity award with an approximate grant date value of $10 million which will vest in chunks over an 18-month period, and relocation benefits.  

In its first quarter ended March 31 the company reported net earnings attributable to ADM of $729 million, down from $1.17 billion in the year-earlier period. 

An ADM spokesperson said the company doesn’t have a comment beyond the news release and declined to comment on the status of the government investigations.