Equifax’s board of directors replaced its embattled chairman and CEO Richard Smith Tuesday with current board member Mark L. Feidler, a former King & Spalding attorney who has served as the COO of AT&T Mobility Group and Cingular Wireless Corp. He will serve as chairman.

The Equifax board announced that Smith was taking early retirement, effective Tuesday, in the aftermath of a breathtaking data breach that compromised the personal and financial information of about 143 million consumers.