– Sweet and sour. The Fortune 500 will soon be down one female CEO after Hershey’s announced 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 announced her plans to retire, but moved up the timeline by almost a year. Her successor is Kirk Tanner, a PepsiCo alum-turned-CEO of Wendy’s who led the fast food chain’s collabs with brands from Spongebob to Takis.
When the 2025 Fortune 500 was published a month ago, 55 companies on the list were led by female CEOs. Buck was one of the longer-tenured among that group; she’d led Hershey since 2017. She well outlasted the average tenure of a female Fortune 500 chief, which has hovered around four years for a decade. (For men, it’s seven—which Buck also beat.)
But Buck has said, per the Wall Street Journal, that she stayed in the CEO job for longer than she planned, after being asked by her board. In her recent months on the job, she dealt with a tough environment for the candy-makers, from high cocoa prices to slowed consumer spending to “Make America Healthy Again”’s criticism of artificial dyes and processed foods.
On the Fortune 500, women are still running more than 10% of companies, if not quite the 11% that stat hit in June. The 71-year-old ranking of America’s largest companies first crossed the 10% mark for female CEOs in 2023. One CEO’s retirement is hardly a problem for female CEOs writ large, but when dealing with numbers this small, every hire or exit matters. Hershey conducted a search for Buck’s replacement and went with an external candidate. That’s where men seem to have an advantage—between 2024 and 2025 no female executives were hired into Fortune 500 CEO jobs, only promoted to them from within.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- ICC charges. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued arrest warrants for both the Taliban supreme leader and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, on charges of persecuting women and girls since returning to power in 2021. Associated Press
- LA ICE raids. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass slammed the Trump administration’s latest immigration enforcement sweep, which took place at MacArthur Park in the city’s Westlake District on Monday. ICE officers on horseback moved from one end of the park to the other. "To me, this is another example of the administration ratcheting up chaos by deploying what looked like a military operation in an American city," Bass said. CBS News
-No more NDAs. Government leaders in the U.K. are set to add a provision to employee-rights legislation that would ban the use of non-disclosure agreements by employers to silence victims of workplace harassment. The legislation would void existing NDAs used by businesses for this purpose and allow witnesses to speak out without risk of legal retribution. Bloomberg
- Another pivot. WeightWatchers emerged from bankruptcy and announced a new program designed to support women going through menopause. The program is set to launch later this year, and will provide resources for women in perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause. MarketWatch
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Conga, a revenue process platform, appointed Celia Fleischaker as its new chief marketing officer. She most recently served as CMO at Isolved.
EnGene, a clinical-stage, non-viral gene-based immunotherapy company, promoted Jill Buck to chief development officer. She most recently served as senior vice president of clinical development operations at the company.
UniUni, a last-mile delivery company, announced the appointment of Sheila Berry as its new chief revenue officer. She most recently led logistics product partnerships globally at Shopify.
The University of St. Thomas appointed Dr. Sinda K. Vanderpool as the institution’s tenth president. She most recently was the president and vice chancellor of St. Mary's University.
Weidner Apartment Homes, a real estate and investment and property management company, appointed Lonna Torchia to the company’s executive leadership team. She currently serves as executive vice president.
ON MY RADAR
They’re calling her an influencer. She’s calling it campaign strategy The 19th
Melinda French Gates reveals she’s refusing to fund her Gen Z daughter’s new startup—despite being worth nearly $31 billion Fortune
Meet the women of Wall Street Bloomberg
PARTING WORDS
“I have been in Hollywood at every size. I have been a sample size, I have had my body change because of life, illness, aging, menopause. And it is merciless wherever you are.”
—Lena Dunham, whose Netflix show Too Much is premiering, on beauty standards in the entertainment industry
