Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Trust Administration, Investment, Real Estate |
Founded | April 28, 1905 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Founders | Milton S. Hershey Harry Lebkicher John E. Snyder |
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Key people | Maria T Kraus, Board Chair [1] |
Website | hersheytrust.com |
The Hershey Trust Company is an American corporation incorporated on April 28, 1905, by Milton S. Hershey, Harry Lebkicher and John E. Snyder. The Hershey Trust Company serves as the Trustee of the Milton Hershey School Trust, The M.S. Hershey Foundation and the Hershey Cemetery Perpetual Care Maintenance Trust and focuses its business solely on these trusts, to advance the legacy of Milton and Catherine Hershey in perpetuity through excellence in asset management and trust administration. The Hershey Trust Company is a Pennsylvania-chartered trust company regulated by the PA Department of Banking and Securities.
The company is the controlling shareholder of The Hershey Company and sole private owner of Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company. The Milton Hershey School Trust provides the funding for the 2,000+ student Milton Hershey School.
The trust company manages the $21.0 billion USD (2021) endowment of the Milton Hershey School Trust. The income from these assets are used to fund the Milton Hershey School and its subsidiaries. The school provides education for lower-income children. [2] [3] [4]
On April 28, 1905, the Pennsylvania Department of State issued a charter creating the Hershey Trust Company. [5] In 1909, when Hershey founded the Milton Hershey School, Hershey appointed the Trust as administrator of the school trust.
In February 2011, Robert Reese (grandson of H. B. Reese the inventor of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups), [6] a former board member and president of the Trust, [7] filed a lawsuit against the Hershey Trust Company alleging that board members had been improperly using the Trust's money. [8] One particular issue was the purchase of the Wren Dale Golf Course, in which the Hershey Trust overpaid for the property, to the benefit of board members who were both owners of the Wren Dale Golf Course and on the Hershey Trust board. [9] [10] Reese withdrew the lawsuit in April 2011, due to deteriorating health. Reese suggested the Pennsylvania Attorney General had enough cause to investigate the Hershey Trust. [11]
In 2013, Kathleen Kane, [12] the Pennsylvania Attorney General, announced the conclusion of a two-year investigation into the operations of the Hershey Trust Company, in which the Office of Attorney General and the Hershey Trust Company agreed that there was a finding of no wrongdoing, but reforms were required of the trust company. [13] [14]
In May 2016, the state attorney general asked the company to remove three members from the ten-person board. The attorney general said that the three had allowed "apparent violations" of the 2013 agreement. At about the same time, in an unrelated investigation, John Estey, former chief of staff to Governor Ed Rendell and a high-ranking executive of the company, was charged with wire fraud, having pocketed $13,000 that an FBI sting operation had given to him in an investigation into illegal lobbying of legislators. [15] [16]
The Hershey Company, often called just Hershey or Hershey's, is an American multinational confectionery company headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States, which is also home to Hersheypark and Hershey's Chocolate World. The Hershey Company is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world; it also manufactures baked products, such as cookies and cakes, and sells beverages like milkshakes, as well as other products. The Hershey Company was founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894 as the Hershey Chocolate Company, originally established as a subsidiary of his Lancaster Caramel Company. The Hershey Trust Company owns a minority stake but retains a majority of the voting power within the company.
Milton Snavely Hershey was an American chocolatier, businessman, and philanthropist.
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The Milton Hershey School, formerly the Hershey Industrial School, is a private boarding school in Hershey, Pennsylvania for K–12 students. The institution was founded in 1909 by chocolate industrialist Milton Hershey and his wife, Catherine Hershey.
Hershey is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is home to The Hershey Company, which was founded by candy magnate Milton S. Hershey, and Hersheypark, an amusement park.
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Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company is a privately held corporation based in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Milton S. Hershey established HE&R in 1927 to distinguish and separate his chocolate manufacturing company from his other business ventures. All of his non-chocolate producing businesses were established as Hershey Estates, renamed HERCO, Inc. in 1976 and Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company in 1998.
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The Milton S. Hershey Mansion, also known as High Point, is a historic house at 100 Mansion Road East in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Built in 1908, it was the home of Hershey Chocolate founder Milton S. Hershey (1857-1945) from 1908 until his death. Hershey is credited with introducing the mass production of chocolate to be sold at low prices and operated what became the world's largest chocolate maker. His house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1983. It presently houses the offices of the Hershey Trust Company, a multibillion-dollar trust fund which owns a controlling share of Hershey Foods Corporation and runs the Milton Hershey School.
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John H. Estey is a now-disbarred attorney who served as chief of staff to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell from 2003 until 2007. He served as interim president of the Milton Hershey School for the 2013–2014 school year and currently serves as executive vice president – administration at Hershey Trust Company, in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Before joining Hershey Trust Company, Estey was a partner at Ballard Spahr LLP in Philadelphia, where he was a co-chair of the Government Relations and Regulatory Affairs Group. He has served as the chairman of the board of commissioners of the Delaware River Port Authority and as chairman of the board of directors of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority He serves as chairman of board of directors of the Independence Visitor Center in Philadelphia, and is a member of the boards of directors of the Gettysburg Foundation and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation.
M. Diane Koken is an American legal and regulatory consultant who serves as a court-appointed special advocate for children (CASA) in Pennsylvania.
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Risa Vetri Ferman is the judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and was formerly District Attorney of the same county. Before winning the election as the county's prosecutor, Ferman worked for 15 years in the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office. In November 2007, she became the first woman elected District Attorney in Montgomery County. In 2011, Ferman won re-election and began her second term as District Attorney in January 2012. She is the daughter of Barbara and Sal Vetri, and sister of restaurateur Marc Vetri and television director and producer Adam Vetri.
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A former official involved with the multibillion-dollar charitable trust that controls the Hershey candy company is claiming in a court filing that board members used the trust's considerable assets to pad their bank accounts and treat themselves to luxury hotel stays, limousine rides and free golf.
Reese, a scion of the peanut-butter cup fortune and a former senior executive of the Hershey Co., seeks to have Hershey trustees reimburse the charity $22 million for purchasing the Wren Dale course at an inflated price and improperly commingling funds in Hershey Trust that led to remedial action after the trust company alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Just as the legal battle was heating up, a former insider at the multibillion-dollar Hershey charity has withdrawn his court action that claimed the misuse of millions of dollars meant for educating poor children. Robert Reese, a former Hershey trustee and president of the Hershey Trust Co., took the action Monday, saying deteriorating eyesight made it impossible for him to pursue the case. He added that he believed the Attorney General's Office would investigate his claims, which were filed Feb. 8 in Dauphin County Orphans Court.