Pizza Exec Nominated to La-Z-Boy Board

July 2, 2013  by Home Furnishing Business in Executive Changes, Industry   

Shareholders will vote on Lawton's election as well as the re-election of the company's 10 existing board members at La-Z-Boy's annual meeting, to be held Aug. 21 at the company's headquarters. 

Lawton, 54, has served as the executive vice president and CFO of Domino's Pizza, Inc. since 2010. He joined Domino's in 1999 and, during his tenure, held positions of increasing responsibility at the company, including executive vice president of international. Prior to joining Domino's, Lawton was the senior vice president and COO of Gerber Products Co. While at Gerber, he held various financial and general management positions. Lawton began his career at Ernst & Whinney, now Ernst & Young.

"Michael is a high-caliber, well-seasoned financial executive with a wealth of consumer, retail and international experience that will translate well to our business," said Kurt L. Darrow, La-Z-Boy chairman, president and CEO. "We look forward to his perspective and the contribution he will make to our company. Long-range succession planning and continuity is of paramount importance to our company. With a number of board retirements expected over the next several years, the board believes it prudent to expand the number of directors at this time to help ensure an orderly transition.  This has proven to work well for us and has become a matter of practice." 

La-Z-Boy has increased the board's size to 11 directors, effective at the upcoming annual meeting.