Victoria B. Mars

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Victoria B. Mars
Victoria Mars at the 27th session of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council in Russia.jpg
Mars, 2013
Born1956or1957(age 67–68) [1]
Education Foxcroft School
Alma mater Yale University (BA)
The Wharton School (MBA)
Occupation(s)Businesswoman, philanthropist
Known forFormer chairperson, Mars, Incorporated
SpouseDavid Spina
Children4
Parent(s) Forrest Mars Jr.
Virginia Cretella
Relativessiblings: Marijke Mars, Pamela Mars-Wright and Valerie Mars

Victoria B. Mars (born 1956/1957) is an American billionaire heiress and businesswoman. She is a former chairwoman of Mars, Incorporated, and current chair of Salzburg Global Seminar.

Contents

Early life

Victoria Mars is a fourth generation member of the Mars family. [2] She is the daughter of Forrest Mars Jr. and Virginia Cretella. She has three sisters: Marijke Mars, Pamela Diane Mars and Valerie Mars. [3] Her paternal great-grandfather, Franklin Clarence Mars, founded Mars, Incorporated in 1911. [2] [4] Her paternal great-grandmother, Ethel V. Mars, was a horsebreeder at Milky Way Farm in Giles County, Tennessee.

She attended Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia, from which she graduated in 1974. [5] She graduated from Yale University. [2] She earned an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1984. [2] [6]

Career

She started her career working for Mars, Incorporated in Haguenau, France in 1978, where she served as Assistant Brand Manager for Milky Way, followed by Export Manager. [2] In 1984, she served as Director of the Marine Systems Division of Mars Electronics International. [2] Two years later, in 1986, she was appointed Vice President of S&F, Commercial, and People and Organization for Dove of Burr Ridge, Illinois in suburban Chicago. [2] A decade later, in 1997, she was appointed Ombudsman at Mars, Incorporated. [2] She was still serving in that position in 2013. [4]

She has served on the board of directors of Mars, Incorporated since 2006. [2] Eight years later, in April 2014, she was appointed as its chairman, replacing Stephen M. Badger. [7] [8] She was a keynote speaker at the 2014 annual conference organized by Great Place to Work, a non-profit organization which promotes employee well-being. [2]

In February 2015, she attended a meeting chaired by Annick Girardin, the French Minister of State for Development and Francophony, alongside Franck Riboud, the chairman of Danone, to launch the Livelihoods Funds, which promotes sustainable development in agribusiness on the African continent. [9]

She inherited about 8 percent stake of Mars Inc. in 2016, which made her a billionaire. According to Forbes, her shares were valued worth of $5.9 billion as of March 2018. [10]

Mars rarely grants interviews, [11] and in 2016 she noted this was an aspect of the Mars corporation that was behind the times. [12]

Charity work

She served on the board of trustees of her alma mater, Foxcroft School. [13]

She serves on the board of The Center for Large Landscape Conservation in Bozeman, Montana. [14] She made charitable contributions to the Charles Darwin Foundation in 2003 and 2004. [15] [16] She also donated to the Galapagos Conservancy in 2007, [17] 2008, [18] 2009, [19] 2010, [20] 2011, [21] 2012, [22] and 2013. [23]

She made donations to the Mystic Seaport, a maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut, in 2011–2012. [24] Additionally, she donated to the High Mountain Institute, a non-profit organization headquartered in Leadville, Colorado which teaches young people about the environment, in 2012 and 2013. [25] [26]

She was a donor to the Thorncroft Equestrian Center in Malvern, Pennsylvania in 2014. [27]

Personal life

She has four children (Stephanie, Bernadette, Kimberly, and Andrew), two from her first marriage and two from her current marriage with David Spina. [28]

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References

  1. ↑ "Forbes profile :Victoria Mars". Forbes. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Great Place to Work. "Events Page". Great Place To Work United States. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  3. ↑ Emily Langer (2016-07-27). "Forrest E. Mars Jr., enigmatic steward of family confectionery, dies at 84". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  4. 1 2 David A. Kaplan, Mars Incorporated: A pretty sweet place to work, Fortune , January 17, 2013
  5. ↑ "At a Glance - Foxcroft School - Middleburg, VA". www.foxcroft.org. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Matthew Brodsky, Hungry for a Sweeter Workplace?, Wharton Magazine, Winter 2015
  7. ↑ New Chairman Of Mars, Incorporated, Victoria B. Mars Delivers Keynote At 2014 Great Place to Work® Conference, MarketWatch , April 4, 2014
  8. ↑ "Mars, Incorporated: CEO and Executives - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  9. ↑ Déclarations officielles de politique étrangère du 05 février 2015
  10. ↑ "The World's Billionaires: 296. Victoria Mars". Forbes. 2018. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  11. ↑ Whipp, Lindsay (October 7, 2015). "Privacy palls for foodmaker Mars in digital age". FT.com; London– via Proquest.
  12. ↑ Kaiser, Tina (28 Feb 2016). "Das Schweigen der Marsianer". Welt am Sonntag, Berlin (in German). p. 33 – via Proquest.
  13. ↑ "Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax". ProPublica. 2019-02-01. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  14. ↑ "Staff, Consultants and Board Members - Center for Large Landscape Conservation". largelandscapes.org. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  15. ↑ "Charles Darwin Foundation, Inc.: 2003 Annual Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  16. ↑ "Charles Darwin Foundation, Inc.: 2004 Annual Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  17. ↑ "Galapagos Institute: 2007 Annual Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  18. ↑ "Galapagos Conservancy: 2008 Annual Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  19. ↑ "Galapagos Conservancy: 2009 Annual Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  20. ↑ "Galapagos Conservancy: 2010 Annual Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  21. ↑ "Galapagos Conservancy: 2011 Annual Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  22. ↑ "Galapagos Conservancy: 2012 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  23. ↑ "Galapagos Conservancy: 2013 Annual Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  24. ↑ "Mystic Seaport: 2011-2012 Annual Financial Report" (PDF). Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  25. ↑ "High Mountain Institute: 2012 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  26. ↑ "High Mountain Institute: 2013 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  27. ↑ "Thorncroft Equestrian Center: Fall 2014" (PDF). Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  28. ↑ "Foxcroft Magazine (Fall 2014) by Foxcroft School". Issuu. 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
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