Hershey Foods Names Kraft Executive as President, CEO

Hershey Foods Corp. on Monday named Richard Lenny, a top Kraft Foods and Nabisco executive with strong snack-food experience, as its new president and chief executive, ending a search that began in October.

The No. 1 chocolate maker said Lenny, 49, will replace Kenneth Wolfe, who has been chairman and chief executive since 1994.

Wolfe, 62, will remain chairman during a transitional period of up to a year, after which Lenny will assume that title also.

The appointment spells a big win for Hershey, which lured Lenny away from Kraft, a company with more than four times its annual sales of $4 billion, after the executive was on the job three months.

This is the third time this year that a former Kraft-trained Nabisco Holdings Corp. executive was tapped to run a competing consumer concern after Kraft parent Philip Morris Cos. acquired cookie maker Nabisco late last year.

Separately, Kraft said it named Michael Polk to replace Lenny. Polk, 40, had been group vice president, Kraft Foods International, and president, Asia Pacific Region.

Lenny, who has 24 years of experience in packaged goods, said his departure from Nabisco was motivated by a desire to improve Hershey Foods’ growth as it expands its product lines to include snack foods, not by any dissatisfaction with Nabisco’s new ownership.

Hershey has been trying to broaden its products beyond chocolate. In December, it acquired Nabisco’s gum and mint business.

Shares of Hershey closed up 56 cents at $65.21. Philip Morris fell $2.15 to close at $49.60. Both trade on the New York Stock Exchange.