Dried-pasta maker New World Pasta Co has announced that it has hired Wynn A Willard as chief executive.

Willard, who resigned in December from the position of senior vice president of Hershey Foods, succeeds Peter E Cotter, New World Pasta’s interim chief since January, reported Dow Jones News Service.

New World Pasta, whose products include Ronzoni, San Giorgio and Creamette pastas, was spun off from Hershey Foods in 1998 when a group of investors paid US$450m for the business.