Leslie Lenzo
CEO/Chief Investment Officer
Highlights: Leslie K. Lenzo, CFA is Chief Executive Officer / Chief Investment Officer of the Hershey Trust Company (“HTC”) in Hershey, PA. Prior to HTC, Ms. Lenzo served as Chief Investment Officer at Advocate Aurora Health where she oversaw the investment of $14 billion in corporate and pension assets as well as the investment options available in the organization’s $8 billion defined contribution plans. Previously, Ms. Lenzo was a senior member of the investment team at Northwestern Memorial Healthcare in Chicago. Ms. Lenzo started her career with the investment program at Partners Health Care in Boston and then moved to the sell side to do equity research covering Healthcare Services at SG Cowen.
Ms. Lenzo holds a BA in Economics and Government from Georgetown University and a MBA in Finance from Boston University. She is also a CFA charter holder. Ms. Lenzo is in the process of moving to Hershey, PA with her husband, four young sons, and Italian Greyhound.
Jerel Hopkins
Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Highlights: Jerel joined Hershey Trust Company in 2023 as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and is responsible for the oversight and management of all legal affairs of HTC. In addition, Jerel serves as Corporate Secretary for HTC as well as Secretary for the M.S. Foundation. He most recently served as Managing Director, Corporate Secretary, Associate General Counsel and Chief Integration Officer with Macquarie Asset Management in Philadelphia. Jerel brings 24 years of legal experience to HTC including experience in state government, corporate, securities and global asset management.
Jerel is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a graduate of Villanova University School of Law where he earned his Juris Doctorate. He is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Laura Minteer
Vice President, Corporate Services
Highlights: Laura joined the Hershey Trust Company in 2022 as Vice President, Corporate Services and is responsible for planning and directing the administration functions of Hershey Trust Company, including human resources and organizational development, information technology, public/community relations, internal and external corporate communications and other office and facilities services. Laura has over 26 years’ experience in human resources and administrative functions. She most recently served on the senior leadership team at Menno Haven Retirement Community as Executive Director, Human Resources & Organizational Development. Prior to that Laura served as Vice President, Human Resources at Meritus Health, a regional health system in Hagerstown, MD.
Laura is a graduate of Shippensburg University where she earned a Bachelors’ degree in Business Administration and a graduate of Saint Francis University in Loretto, PA where she earned a Masters’ degree in Human Resource Management.
Muzzamil Mussani
Vice President, Investment Operations and Portfolio Analytics
Highlights: Muzzamil joined Hershey Trust Company in 2023 as Vice President, Investment Operations and Portfolio Analytics where he is responsible for leading the Investment Operations department. Mr. Mussani has over 17 years’ experience in investment operations and portfolio management. He most recently served as Director of Investment Operations at Advocate Health Care in Downers Grove, IL where he spent the last 9 years building the investment operations function. Mr. Mussani has served in various roles throughout his career as a strategic partner and leader in the investment management sector.
Mr. Mussani is a graduate of the Institute of Business Management in Karachi, Pakistan where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration majoring in Finance. He has been CFA charter holder since 2010.
Jennifer Sassani
Vice President & Director, Diversifying Assets
Highlights: Jen joined the Hershey Trust Company in 2017. As a member of the HTC investment team, she is specifically responsible for the development and oversight of the Real Assets portfolio, which includes public and private strategies. In addition, she works closely with the Director of Fixed Income, who is responsible for the public fixed income and private credit strategies; and the internal team that manages the local, directly-held real estate portfolio.
Prior to joining the Hershey Trust Company, Jen served as Lehigh University’s Director of Alternative Investments where she was responsible for overseeing the private equity and private real estate initiatives. Jen also functioned as the COO of the Investment Office. Before joining Lehigh, she held various roles with the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System (“SERS”), most recently as Co-Director of Alternative Investments and was involved with managing SERS’ then $10 billion private equity program.
Jen holds a BSBA from Shippensburg University and a MSBA from Bucknell University.
Joshua Shannon, CFA
Deputy Chief Investment Officer/Vice President & Director, Equities
Highlights: Josh joined the team in 2019 with over 20 years of experience in equity analysis, manager selection, and portfolio construction, with his most recent work experience from Goldman Sachs Asset Management in New York, where he was Vice President, Portfolio Manager for the US Fundamental Equity franchise. Prior to Goldman, Josh was with Honeywell Capital Management with responsibility for Public Equities across both the in-house actively managed and outside manager portfolios for the $20 billion pension plan. Josh initially joined JPMorgan Securities within the Fundamental Equity Research platform and with primary responsibility for the consumer staples sector.
Josh earned a degree in Economics, with Honors, from Lafayette College. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®).
As Vice President, Equities, and Deputy CIO, Josh serves as the senior-most officer for all public equity portfolios managed by HTC. In addition, Josh conducts and oversees analysis of controlled companies.
