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.
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 for $5 billion in 2020. Both assets are included in Mars Inc.’s valuation.Mars Inc. has $17 billion in total debt as of May 2023, according to Bloomberg data. The billionaire’s share of that debt is included as a liability.The company’s external spokeswoman Amy Weiss declined to comment on the valuation.
Early life
Victoria Mars is a fourth generation member of the Mars family. She is the daughter of Forrest Mars Jr. and Virginia Cretella. She has three sisters: Marijke Mars, Pamela Mars-Wright and Valerie Mars. Her paternal great-grandfather, Franklin Clarence Mars, founded Mars, Incorporated in 1911. Her paternal great-grandmother, Ethel V. Mars, was a horsebreeder at Milky Way Farm in Giles County, Tennessee. Education: Yale University
She attended Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia, from which she graduated in 1974. She graduated from Yale University. She earned an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1984.
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. In 1984, she served as Director of the Marine Systems Division of Mars Electronics International. 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. A decade later, in 1997, she was appointed Ombudsman at Mars, Incorporated. She was still serving in that position in 2013.
She has served on the board of directors of Mars, Incorporated since 2006. Eight years later, in April 2014, she was appointed as its chairman, replacing Stephen M. Badger. 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.
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.
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
Charity work
She served on the board of trustees of her alma mater, Foxcroft School.[
She serves on the board of The Center for Large Landscape Conservation in Bozeman, Montana. She made charitable contributions to the Charles Darwin Foundation in 2003 and 2004. She also donated to the Galapagos Conservancy in 2007,[15] 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.
She made donations to the Mystic Seaport, a maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut, in 2011–2012. 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.
She was a donor to the Thorncroft Equestrian Center in Malvern, Pennsylvania in 2014
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
Milestones
- 1911 Great-grandfather Frank C. Mars begins selling buttercream candy.
- 1930 Mars begins selling the Snickers bar.
- 1959 Forrest Mars Sr. moves the headquarters from New Jersey to Washington D.C.
- 1978 Starts first job at Mars Inc., as brand manager for Milky Way in France.
- 1984 Earns an MBA from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
- 1997 Becomes the first ombudsman at Mars.
- 2008 Mars acquires Wrigley for $23 billion.
- 2014 Appointed chairman of the board of Mars Inc.
