Michele Buck Announces Hershey Executive Team

HERSHEY, Pa., Feb. 23, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) today announced the new executive leadership team that incoming President and CEO Michele Buck has chosen to lead the organization into the next phase of its growth and success. The new team balances continuity in key positions through exceptional leaders from within the company and world-class talent from outside of Hershey.

“Hershey is an innovative snacking leader with its number one market share in U.S. confection and increasing breadth across U.S. snacking,” said Buck. “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. 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.”

The following eight leaders will comprise Hershey’s new executive leadership team, effective March 1, unless otherwise noted:

Todd Tillemans, President, U.S. – Tillemans will join Hershey on April 3 to lead the company's flagship U.S. business including core confection, its expanding portfolio across snacking, and its sales and go-to-market teams. Tillemans joins the company from Unilever, where he worked for more than 23 years. He has held multiple leadership positions, including leading Unilever’s skin care business in Europe and Russia, its personal care business in the United States, and most recently serving as President, Customer Development U.S.

Steven Schiller, President, International – Schiller, currently President, China & Asia is named President, International. He will continue to oversee the China and Asia markets and will assume responsibility for the Americas region, India and Europe, Middle-East, and Africa.

Terry O’Day, Senior Vice President, Chief Product Supply and Technology Officer – O’Day, currently Chief Supply Chain Officer, will continue to oversee the company's supply chain organization and will assume responsibility for Hershey’s productivity, information technology and enterprise connectivity initiatives.

In connection with these announcements, Chief Knowledge and Technology Officer Waheed Zaman will retire from the company effective March 31.

The Hershey Company has undertaken a search for a Chief Growth Officer who will lead Hershey’s Insights and Analytics, Strategy, marketing excellence functions, Innovation, Research and Development, Mergers and Acquisitions and The Hershey Experience. The company has identified an external candidate who is expected to join the team this spring.

Continuing in their roles are:

* Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Patricia Little

* Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Leslie Turner

* Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Kevin Walling

* Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Mike Wege

“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.