4th Generation of Edwards Family Returning to Greek Immigrant Neighborhood Roots with Multi Million Dollar Expansion of Chocolate Business

The Edwards family is returning to their roots— literally. A century ago in 1914, a Greek couple named Charlie and Ourania left Greece and arrived in Pittsburgh, via New York City, carrying with them knowledge and family recipes that would be transformed into a chocolate shop in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of the city, an enclave for Greek immigrants at the time.

Over time— and four generations, Edward Marc grew to become a premium, boutique-style chocolatier with a wide array of products and a retail presence in the Pentagon in Washington DC and on Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood, and a successful mail order business via their website that reaches consumers in all fifty states. Products like Snappers have received major national media attention.

While the family grew— two of the great grandchildren of the original founders went off to become successful political power brokers in various Republican party administrations and campaigns.

Chris Edwards served as a White House Commissioned Officer and Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and also as Deputy Chief of Staff to former Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin during the 2008 Presidential campaign.

He began his career far away from chocolates, taking a post at the State Department. He moved to the Office of Presidential Advance at the White House before the 2004 Presidential campaign, traveling and organizing events for the president, after which he assumed the role of Special Assistant to the President overseeing media operations for Presidential events both domestically and internationally.

His sister Dana had an equally illustrious career in politics. She joined the White House as an intern in 2003 and quickly was hired on as a staff member organizing events for both the President and the First Lady, during the first Bush Administration. That same year, she became Senior Trip Coordinator to the President, where she was responsible for coordinating all logistics for Presidential travel domestically and internationally. She was promoted to Associate Director in the Office of Public Liaison in 2005. In this role, she served as the primary liaison to outside groups involved in Presidential events. Her primary responsibility was to highlight the President’s message and participate in ongoing outreach to various constituent groups to create coalitions and gather issue-based support. She was the primary liaison to the Greek community, promoting events such as Greek Independence Day.

Both Dana and Chris resigned from their successful White House careers to work in the family business.

On October 21, the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania announced that the Edwards family would be returning to their Lawrenceville roots, setting up a new 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility for their long line of chocolates. The company plans to invest $2.5 million to expand the site, while more than three dozen employees will be added to their team.