Table of Contents
MEMPHIS — Fred’s Inc. announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Joseph Anto is now the chief executive officer of the company, effective February 3. The board made the appointment on January 30.
Previously, Anto served as Fred’s interim CEO as well as chief financial officer.
Heath Freeman, chairman of the board, said, “On behalf of the board, I want to express how pleased we are to have Joe as our CEO. As chairman, I have worked closely with Joe during his tenure as interim CEO, and I am looking forward to collaborating with Joe to write the next chapter for Fred’s.”
As part of this announcement, the following executive changes were also made:
• Ritwik Chatterjee was named chief financial officer. He was serving as senior vice president of corporate development for Fred’s — a role he held since September 2018. In June 2018, he was hired as Fred’s vice president of finance. He previously held jobs at the following organizations: Rachel Zoe Inc., Microdynamics Group, OSG Billing Services, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., Structured Portfolio Management, Harbinger Capital Partners, Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray Cos. and CIBC World Markets.
• Nathaniel Klein was named chief operating officer. He joined Fred’s in April 2018 as senior vice president of finance. He is a founder of North American Lithium and previously served as vice president at Hale Capital Management.
• Michael Ladd was named chief stores officer. Ladd joined Fred’s as executive vice president of store operations in January 2018. Before that, he worked at Barnes & Noble Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp.
Anto was named interim CEO in April 2018. He was previously the senior vice president of strategy and M&A at MediaNews Group Inc., doing business as Digital First Media, which is under the umbrella of Alden Global Capital — the hedge fund that is Fred’s largest shareholder.
