Incoming Hershey CEO chooses leadership team
HERSHEY, Pa. — Hershey’s incoming president and CEO, Michele Buck, has chosen key members of the executive leadership team, the company announced Thursday. The leadership team — a combination of promoted executives already with Hershey and a hire from Unilever — also will comprise four top Hershey executives continuing on in their current roles.
“I’m extremely confident in the individuals who will lead our organization as we delight our customers and consumers with innovation and news in the marketplace and strive to deliver leading sales growth and margins across the food industry,” Buck said. “This is a great team, with a range of experiences, expertise and backgrounds to accelerate our innovation, execute with excellence, instill a commercial mindset in all we do, and inspire our remarkable employees to achieve our goals.”
Buck has named Todd Tillemans — most recently president, customer development U.S. at Unilever — as president of Hershey’s U.S. division. He will lead the company’s flagship U.S. business and expand its snacking portfolio, while also heading up sales and go-to-market teams. He spent 23 years at Uniliever in various management positions, including its European and Russian skin care businesses and its U.S. personal care business. He takes on his role effective April 1.
Steven Schiller has been named president, international — a move up from his current role as president China and Asia. He adds the Americas region, India and Europe, Middle East and Africa divisions to his duties. Also being promoted is Terry O’Day, who has been named SVP, chief product supply and technology officer. He currently serves as Hershey’s chief supply chain officer and will continue to oversee the company’s supply chain organization while adding oversight of productivity, information technology and enterprise connectivity initiatives. Both new roles are effective March 1.
Continuing in their current roles will be SVP and CFO Patricia Little; SVP, general counsel and secretary Leslie Turner; SVP and chief human resources officer Kevin Walling; and SVP and chief administrative officer Mike Wege.
As part of the executive shakeups, chief knowledge and technology officer Waheed Zaman will retire, effective March 31. And the company has launched a search for a chief growth officer to lead its insights and analytics, strategy, marketing excellence functions, innovation, research and development, mergers and acquisitions, and the Hershey Experience. A candidate that has been identified is expected to come aboard in spring.
“These appointments reaffirm our commitment to creating opportunities for remarkable people to grow within the company and to attracting world-class talent from outside of Hershey. On behalf of the Board of Directors and management, I would like to thank Waheed Zaman for his work over the past four years to advance our technology, data and analytics capabilities,” Buck said.