Mary Beth West has been named senior vice-president and chief growth officer of The Hershey Co., effective May 1.
In her new role, Ms. West will oversee Hershey’s growth strategy, including insights and analytics, strategy, marketing excellence functions, innovation, research and development, mergers and acquisitions and The Hershey Experience, the company said.
Ms. West most recently was executive vice-president and chief customer and marketing officer at J.C. Penney Company, Inc. For more than 20 years, she led businesses and marketing at Mondelez International, Inc., previously Kraft Foods, including roles as chief category and marketing officer and president of both its North American beverage and grocery businesses.
“Mary Beth will be a great addition to our executive team,” said Michele Buck, president and chief executive officer of Hershey. “She is an accomplished business leader who is considered one of the best food executives and marketers in the industry. Her deep experience in growing some of the world’s best-known consumer brands and demonstrated ability to transform consumer engagement will be a tremendous asset to Hershey as we chart our growth agenda.”
By Rebekah Schouten
Source: Food Business News
The company expects to eliminate 1.2 billion tons carbon dioxide equivalent of methane emissions by the end of the decade. The company says that it already reduced its methane emissions by around 14% between 2018 and 2020.
The “first-of-its-kind” pilot project will develop and demonstrate an affordable modular bioprocessing system to produce biodegradable bioplastics from food waste diverted from landfills. The three-year grant will test the scalability and feasibility of the conversion on a national and global scale.
Arkeon is allying with specialty mineral giant ICL to support the scaling of its fermentation bioprocess that converts CO2 into the 20 proteinogenic essential amino acids needed in human nutrition. The process, hailed as carbon negative, is based on the use of archaea, a group of microorganisms that naturally feeds off the greenhouse gas.
