By Douglas Yu

Sylvia Buxton will become CEO of Perfetti Van Melle North America later this month.

Confectioner Perfetti Van Melle (PVM) has announced that Sylvia Buxton will succeed Mehmet Yuksek to be its North America’s president and CEO, effective August 17.

The company said Buxton is an “accomplished marketing and business leader with more than 30 years of experience in consumer packaged goods.”

“She joined PVM in 2016 as vice president of marketing. Since then, she has led marketing strategy for the Airheads and Mentos brands.”

Prior to joining PVM, Buxton worked various roles at Hershey for 24 years, including senior global brand director of Brookside and senior marketing director of Americas Chocolate.

Commenting on Buxton’s new role, PVM’s global CEO Sameer Suneja said: “It is a pleasure to appoint Sylvia Buxton, from within our own global pool of executive talent, as successor to Mehmet Yuksek.”

“We are confident that, together with the leadership team in North America, she will continue to grow our business and strengthen our market position in North America.”