Hostess Brands Inc. has named Brian Driscoll as chief executive officer, replacing Craig Jung who has served as chief executive since 2007 and is now retiring.

Driscoll joins Hostess from Kraft Foods, Inc., where he was president of sales, customer service and logistics. He brings 30 years of food and beverage industry experience, having served since 1980 in a variety of senior executive roles at Kraft, Nabisco, Nestlé USA and Procter & Gamble.  

“We are moving into a new phase of growth at Hostess Brands which we believe parallels perfectly with the broad food experience that Brian brings to Hostess. Brian is a proven leader with the ability to unlock brand power, enhance distribution systems and inspire people. We are confident that he will quickly gain the trust of our valued employees, as well as customers at [our] more than 190,000 locations across the nation. This is a very exciting time for Hostess Brands with the introduction of new products and gains in market share. We are pleased with our progress and confident that Brian will lead us through our next phase of growth and development,” says John T. Cahill, chairman of the Irving, Texas-based producer of bread and sweet goods.

“At the same time, on behalf of the board of directors, I want to recognize and thank Craig Jung for everything he has achieved at Hostess over the past several years, including assembling a world-class team. He helped us navigate through a very challenging time, and we are most appreciative of his leadership and wish him all the best going forward,” Cahill says.

Driscoll began his career in 1980 as a metro New York sales representative for Procter & Gamble, rising in the sales ranks before joining Nestlé Foods in 1985, where he served in a variety of key executive roles in sales and general management. In 1995, he joined Nabisco to lead their warehouse products sales and integrated logistics organization. In 1998, he became senior vice president for their biscuit direct-store-delivery sales and customer service organization. Driscoll joined Kraft in late 2000.

Hostess owns a variety of brands, includingWonder, Merita, Home Pride, Nature’s Pride, Hostess, Drake’sandDolly Madison.