Eli Lilly CFO resigns after ‘inappropriate’ communications with employees

Eli Lilly announced that Josh Smiley, its chief financial officer and senior vice president, has resigned after an investigation revealed “inappropriate personal communications” with employees.

The pharmaceutical company said an independent investigation was recently launched after it was “made aware of allegations of an inappropriate personal relationship” between Smiley and an employee. “The investigation revealed consensual though inappropriate personal communications with more than one employee and behavior that Lilly leadership concluded exhibited poor judgment by Mr. Smiley,” the company said in a statement to CNN Business.

Eli Lilly didn’t provide detail about the nature of the relationship nor the communications.

“Lilly holds all employees accountable to its core values and strongly believes its executive officers carry an even higher burden in ensuring those values are upheld,” the company said in a release Tuesday. “Mr. Smiley did not meet that standard.”

Smiley is being replaced by Anat Ashkenazi, a 20-year veteran of the company who was most recently vice president of Lilly Research Laboratories.

The company said Smiley can assist in the transition and that the conduct which led to his departure was not related to “financial controls, financial statements or any other business matters or judgments.” Smiley joined Lilly in 1995 and was promoted to CFO in 2018.