Dive Brief:

• Digital World Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company planning to merge with an online media venture created by former President Donald Trump, announced Wednesday that it hired a new CFO as part of a broader shakeup of its management team and board of directors.

• The leadership changes, including the appointment of Katherine Chiles as finance chief, became effective on Tuesday, according to a press release. Prior to joining Digital World, Chiles served as a reporting analyst for Ireland-based Actavo, a supplier of industrial and event infrastructure services, according to her LinkedIn page.

• Digital World’s proposed merger with Trump Media & Technology Group, announced in October 2021, has faced legal and regulatory hurdles as well as shareholder vote delays. The appointment of Chiles follows the resignation of former Digital World CFO Luiz Philippe Braganza in December. 

Dive Insight:

Digital World Interim CEO Eric Swider said the company’s new leadership structure is designed to “create a more independent relationship between our sponsor and management, as well between management and the Board.”

“I am looking forward to working with the highly skilled individuals that have been selected to fill these positions,” he said in the release.

Swider was appointed interim CEO last month, succeeding Patrick Orlando, who was terminated. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing at the time, Digital World said its board decided to establish a new management team due to “unprecedented headwinds” facing the company.

“Mr. Orlando’s departure enables the Board to appoint new leadership, which it believes will restore confidence to the shareholders,” the filing said.

SPACs, or blank-check businesses, are publicly traded entities created for the purpose of forming a merger or acquisition. 

Digital World is seeking formal approval for its proposed merger with Trump Media from the Securities and Exchange Commission even as the agency investigates whether the company, before its IPO, engaged in illegal negotiations with Trump’s company on details of a merger. The Justice Department is pursuing a similar probe.

In the Tuesday release, Swider said Digital World will continue to work with the “appropriate regulators and agencies in full cooperation with the ongoing investigations.” He also said he looks forward to working with outside counsel and third-party advisers “as we focus on our singular goal, to put Digital World in a position to call a vote of the stockholders on the pending merger so as to build stockholder value.”

Chiles has a background in areas such as financial statement preparation and analysis, as well as financial planning and reporting, according to a SEC filing by Digital World. Besides Actavo, she previously worked at Georgia-headquartered law firm Fisher Phillips as a financial planning analyst and at Netherlands-based multinational bank ING as a financial analyst.

Other leadership changes announced by Digital World Tuesday include the appointment of Alexander Cano as president and secretary of the company and Frank Andrews as non-executive chairman of the board.