– Candy and bitter. The Fortune 500 will quickly be down one feminine CEO after Hershey’s introduced yesterday that longtime chief Michele Buck will hand over the reins of the $11.2 billion-in-revenue chocolate-maker Aug. 18.
Buck had already introduced her plans to retire, however moved up the timeline by virtually a yr. Her successor is Kirk Tanner, a PepsiCo alum-turned-CEO of Wendy’s who led the quick meals chain’s collabs with manufacturers from Spongebob to Takis.
When the 2025 Fortune 500 was printed a month in the past, 55 corporations on the record had been led by feminine CEOs. Buck was one of many longer-tenured amongst that group; she’d led Hershey since 2017. She properly outlasted the common tenure of a feminine Fortune 500 chief, which has hovered round 4 years for a decade. (For males, it’s seven—which Buck additionally beat.)
However Buck has stated, per the Wall Road Journal, that she stayed within the CEO job for longer than she deliberate, after being requested by her board. In her latest months on the job, she handled a tricky atmosphere for the candy-makers, from excessive cocoa costs to slowed shopper spending to “Make America Wholesome Once more”‘s criticism of synthetic dyes and processed meals.
On the Fortune 500, ladies are nonetheless working greater than 10% of corporations, if not fairly the 11% that stat hit in June. The 71-year-old rating of America’s largest corporations first crossed the ten% mark for feminine CEOs in 2023. One CEO’s retirement is hardly an issue for feminine CEOs writ massive, however when coping with numbers this small, each rent or exit issues. Hershey performed a seek for Buck’s substitute and went with an exterior candidate. That’s the place males appear to have a bonus—between 2024 and 2025 no feminine executives had been employed into Fortune 500 CEO jobs, solely promoted to them from inside.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Highly effective Ladies Day by day e-newsletter is Fortune’s every day briefing for and concerning the ladies main the enterprise world. Right now’s version was curated by Sara Braun. Subscribe right here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
– ICC fees. The Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC) in The Hague issued arrest warrants for each the Taliban supreme chief and the top of Afghanistan’s Supreme Courtroom, on fees of persecuting ladies and women since returning to energy in 2021. Related Press
– LA ICE raids. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass slammed the Trump administration’s newest immigration enforcement sweep, which happened at MacArthur Park within the metropolis’s Westlake District on Monday. ICE officers on horseback moved from one finish of the park to the opposite. “To me, that is one other instance of the administration ratcheting up chaos by deploying what regarded like a navy operation in an American metropolis,” Bass stated. CBS Information
-No extra NDAs. Authorities leaders within the U.Ok. are set so as to add a provision to employee-rights laws that will ban the usage of non-disclosure agreements by employers to silence victims of office harassment. The laws would void present NDAs utilized by companies for this function and permit witnesses to talk out with out threat of authorized retribution. Bloomberg
– One other pivot. WeightWatchers emerged from chapter and introduced a brand new program designed to help ladies going by means of menopause. This system is ready to launch later this yr, and can present sources for girls in perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause. MarketWatch
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Conga, a income course of platform, appointed Celia Fleischaker as its new chief advertising and marketing officer. She most just lately served as CMO at Isolved.
EnGene, a clinical-stage, non-viral gene-based immunotherapy firm, promoted Jill Buck to chief growth officer. She most just lately served as senior vp of medical growth operations on the firm.
UniUni, a last-mile supply firm, introduced the appointment of Sheila Berry as its new chief income officer. She most just lately led logistics product partnerships globally at Shopify.
The College of St. Thomas appointed Dr. Sinda Ok. Vanderpool because the establishment’s tenth president. She most just lately was the president and vice chancellor of St. Mary’s College.
Weidner House Houses, an actual property and funding and property administration firm, appointed Lonna Torchia to the corporate’s government management group. She at present serves as government vp.
ON MY RADAR
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PARTING WORDS
“I’ve been in Hollywood at each dimension. I’ve been a pattern dimension, I’ve had my physique change due to life, sickness, ageing, menopause. And it’s cruel wherever you might be.”
—Lena Dunham, whose Netflix present Too A lot is premiering, on magnificence requirements within the leisure business
