Pamela Diane Mars-Wright (b. Mars, 1960) is an American businesswoman and billionaire heiress. Previously, she was the chairman of the board of Mars Inc. She is a supervisory board member of Dutch brewing company Heineken International.
Mars-Wright is a fourth generation member of the Mars family. Her father was Forrest Mars Jr. (1931–2016). She has three sisters: Marijke Mars, Valerie Mars and Victoria B. Mars. She inherited about 8 percent stake of Mars Inc. in 2016, which made her a billionaire. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, her net worth was valued worth of $11.5 billion as of June 2021.
Mars-Wright graduated (BA/BSc) from Vassar College. She has held several roles within Mars Inc. She started as an operations supervisor in 1986, then she became plant director manager at the company’s petcare factory followed by a position as manufacturing director at Mars Australia. After a sabbatical she joined Mars Inc. as a member of the board of directors in 2001 and served also as the chairman of the board (2004–2008). She was a board member of Mars Inc. also in 2015 and was promoting sustainability. Today, she works as the family’s ambassador to the Mars petcare division.
In 1992, she married Lonnie Wright, a plant manager, in Champaign, Illinois. She has three children.
The majority of Mars’s fortune is derived from her 8% stake in McLean, Virginia-based Mars Inc., a closely held US candy, food and pet products company. The Mars family is the sole shareholder of the company, according to private company filings. The company declined to comment on the breakdown of individual shareholders.
The analysis assumes the fortune was inherited equally by third-generation siblings Jacqueline, John and Forrest Jr. It also assumes the late Forrest Jr.’s stake was split equally among his four children, Victoria, Valerie, Marijke and Pamela, after his death in 2016.
The business is the world’s largest candy maker and best known for confections such as Snickers, Milky Way and Twix. With its purchase of Wrigley in 2008 for $23 billion, it commands more than half of the US chewing-gum market, according to Euromonitor. Its other popular candies include Skittles, Starburst, Life Savers and Altoids. Its food brands include Ben’s Original and Suzi Wan, and pet food and care brands include Pedigree, Whiskas and Eukanuba.
Mars has annual sales of almost $50 billion, according to an April 2023 Moody’s report. It’s valued using the average enterprise value-to-sales and enterprise value-to-Ebitda multiples of three publicly traded peer companies: Hershey, Nestle and Mondelez International.
Mars acquired animal-hospital chain, VCA Inc., for $7.6 billion in 2017 and snack-bar maker Kind in 2020. Both assets are included in Mars Inc.’s valuation.
Mars Inc. has $17 billion in loans and other debt as of May 2023, according to Bloomberg data. The billionaire’s share of that debt is included as a liability.
The family’s spokeswoman, Amy Weiss, declined to comment on the valuation.
Biography
Education: Vassar College
Pamela Mars-Wright was born in 1960, one of four daughters of the late Forrest Mars Jr. and his first wife, Virginia Cretella.
Her great-grandfather, Frank Mars, learned to hand-dip chocolate as a schoolboy. He began making and selling buttercream candies from his home in Tacoma, Washington in 1911, and moved the business to Minneapolis in 1920, operating under the banner Nougat House. A long string of confectionery blockbusters followed, including Milky Way, Snickers and 3 Musketeers.
After his death in 1934, Frank’s only son, Forrest, took over the business and expanded it into pet care with the purchase of Chappie canned dog food and, later, into packaged food with the addition of what would become Uncle Ben’s rice. Forrest stepped down from day-to-day management of the global food manufacturer in 1969, turning over control to his two sons, John and Forrest Jr., who died in July 2016.
A graduate of Vassar College, Pamela Mars-Wright joined the family business as an operations supervisor in 1986 after a stint in advertising. Her later roles at Mars Inc. included plant manager of the family’s Los Angeles-based petcare company, Kal Kan Foods, manufacturing director at Mars Australia and chairman of the board of the entire company.
Milestones
- 1911 Great-grandfather Frank C. Mars begins selling buttercream candy.
- 1960 Pamela Mars is born to Frank Mars Sr. and Virginia Cretella.
- 1961 Moves to Holland with family after father becomes manager of Dutch factory.
- 1982 Earns her bachelors degree from Vassar College.
- 1986 Starts working at the family business as an operations supervisor.
- 1993 Marries Lonnie Wright in Champaign, Illinois.
- 2008 Mars acquires Wrigley for $23 billion.
- 2016 Joins the board of beer company, Heineken.
