Hershey Names Gene Kholodenko CIO
Gene Kholodenko has been named the CIO of the Hershey Company, according to a company announcement on LinkedIn. He will be tasked with spearheading Hershey’s ongoing tech modernization and digital transformation.
Kholodenko brings more than 26 years of experience in IT and digital and business transformation leadership, leveraging technology to drive business value across sales, marketing, R&D, supply chain, manufacturing, and shared services.
An IT Background With P&G
He spent more than two decades at Procter & Gamble, working in several IT, CTO, and CIO roles across the company’s home care, fragrances, chemical, and global businesses. As a transformational executive in digital, IT, and business services, Kholodenko’s expertise spans strategy design, development, execution, and operations.
During his tenure at P&G as a global IT governance leader for corporate functions, Kholodenko helped lead the transformation of IT services. He streamlined P&G’s IT policies from over 200 to just 16, automating 80% of the compliance tracking, according to his LinkedIn.
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This shift resulted in $3.2 million in annual savings and a major reduction in enterprise risk. Kholodenko’s efforts also contributed to a 280% reduction in enterprise incidents over a three-year period, earning him the itSMF USA Award for Service Management in Action.
He joins Hershey from McKesson, a pharmaceutical distribution company, where he oversaw the end-to-end delivery of all IT services for pharma distribution, totaling $200 billion in revenue.
A Digital Transformation Journey
This builds on the company’s ongoing tech transformation plan. Earlier this year, Hershey invested in its analytics infrastructure, implementing a new data architecture to unify and streamline insights and processes. The strategy includes establishing a modern-day analytics platform with self-service capabilities on trusted data models.
As part of these efforts, Hershey hired its first chief technology officer last year, tapping Deepak Bhatia to oversee the company’s global tech strategy, focusing on digital capabilities and IT architecture.
Kholodenko will report directly to Bhatia, the company confirmed, and will serve on the Information Services Leadership team.
“This role represents an incredible opportunity to contribute to one of the world’s most iconic and purpose-driven companies,” Kholodenko told CGT.
