Plant-based food company Beyond Meat has announced the suspension of its chief executive following reports that the executive had been arrested and charged following a road rage incident in which he was accused of biting off a man’s nose. Doug Ramsey, 53, was arrested Saturday night and charged with third-degree assault and terroristic threatening, according to records from Washington County, Arkansas. Records show he was released Sunday morning on $11,085 bond. Citing a Saturday police report, local media reported that Ramsey was arrested after an altercation in a parking garage outside a University of Arkansas football game in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Saturday. According to the police report cited by the media, Ramsey became enraged when another driver’s vehicle came into contact with his own. The report says Ramsey got out of his car and punched the back windshield of the other vehicle. The other driver got out of his car, whereupon Ramsey allegedly punched him, bit his nose and threatened to kill him. California-based Beyond Meat said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that Ramsey had been suspended effective immediately. Business operations will now be overseen on an interim basis by Jonathan Nelson, the company’s senior vice president of manufacturing operations. Ramsey joined Beyond Meat in December 2021, following a nearly three-decade career at Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, one of the largest conventional meat producers in the US. The COO’s suspension comes at a difficult time for Beyond Meat, which in recent months has announced job cuts and downgraded its sales outlook due to continued inflationary pressures and the need to discount its products in an effort to attract buyers. Shares of Beyond Meat have lost more than three-quarters of their value in 2022 and closed at a record low of $16.03 on Tuesday. Shares briefly changed hands for more than $230 about two months after the company’s initial public offering in May 2019, when it was trading at $25 a share.
