Hershey Names Food Industry Veteran To Succeed Wolfe As CEO

ByBridgeNews Richard H. Lenny, a 49-year-old Kraft Foods executive with almost a quarter-century of food industry experience, will take over as president and CEO of Hershey Foods, the candy conglomerate said Mar. 12. Lenny, most recently president of Kraft's Nabisco snack and biscuit division, succeeds Ken Wolfe, Hershey's CEO since 1994 and a 34-year company veteran. Wolfe, 62, announced his planned retirement late last year, but he will remain Hershey's chairman for up to a year. After that, Lenny will add chairman to his title, as well. At Nabisco, Lenny guided a division with $6 billion in annual sales and popular brands such as Oreo, Chips Ahoy!, and Ritz crackers. Before joining Nabisco, he served as president of Pillsbury's North American division and previously handled brand and sales management at Kraft for 18 years. Lenny is the third high-level executive to leave Nabisco for a chief executive's role since Philip Morris purchased Nabisco last year and rolled it into Kraft.