Retail/Wholesale: MICHAEL SEVER

Dennis Winnett, plant manager of Hershey’s Stuarts Draft manufacturing facility, retired late last year, not long after workers at the plant began efforts to form a union.

Sever, who reports to the company’s vice president of North American manufacturing, filled the plant manager position in February, a few weeks before 79% of the plant’s workers voted against unionizing. He may still face union-related issues, however, since the National Labor Relations Board is investigating complaints by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union accusing Hershey of unfair labor practices related to the vote.

Previously, Sever worked for almost 20 years for the Hershey Co. in Pennsylvania, San Francisco and China. He also previously spent a year at the Stuarts Draft plant, which produces Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and other candies, working as site operations leader.

Sever left Hershey in 2018 to work in Charlottesville as vice president of U.S. operations for WorldStrides, a provider of educational travel and experiences. At the same time, Sever and his wife, Jessie, launched Wild Blue Chocolate, a Crozet-based business that makes small-batch chocolate bars out of organic cacao and maple sugar without emulsifiers or oils.