Top Yankee Candle executive will resign

Yankee Candle Co. said today that senior vice president Bruce H. Besanko will leave the Deerfield company at the end of the month to take a similar job at Circuit City Stores Inc.

Yankee Candle, a designer, manufacturer, and retailer of scented candles, was recently purchased by Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, a Chicago-based investment firm, in a deal valued at about $1.7 billion.

Besanko, who also holds the title of chief financial officer, "played a critical leadership role in the successful recent sale of the company," Craig W. Rydin, chairman and chief executive of Yankee Candle, said in a statement.

Circuit City is a consumer-electronics retail chain headquartered in Virginia.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)