# John Mars **John Franklyn Mars** (born October 15, 1935, in Arlington, Virginia) is the younger son of [[Forrest Mars Sr.]] and grandson of [[Frank Mars]]. He owns roughly one-third of [[Mars Inc.]] and is the senior surviving member of the [[Mars Family]]. For the KB he is the second-generation figure who, with his brother, turned Mars from a large candy company into a global food and pet-care conglomerate. He did it without ever taking the company public or publishing its accounts. The dynasty story lives on the family page. ## Background - Graduated from the Hotchkiss School (1953) and Yale (B.A.); served in the US Army. - His first Mars assignment was launching a pet-food business in Australia. - Married Adrienne Bevis in 1958; three children: Linda (b. 1960), Frank Edward (b. 1963) and Michael (b. 1967). - Lives in Jackson, Wyoming; formerly in Fairfax County, Virginia. Forbes listed him at age 90 in 2026. ## Running Mars In 1975 he and his brother [[Forrest Mars Jr.]] became co-presidents of Mars. Sales were then slightly over $1 billion. Forrest Jr. retired in 1999, the year their father died, and left the board in 2006. John is often described as having served as chairman, but the sources reviewed here give no dates for that role. Board leadership has since passed to the third generation, including [[Stephen Badger II]] and [[Victoria Mars]], under a non-family chief executive. ## Governance model Ownership splits three ways by branch: John, his sister [[Jacqueline Mars]], and Forrest Jr.'s four daughters each hold about one-third (Forbes). The company stays private and shares no financial statements. Family members sit on the board, and professionals run the operations. The [[Mars Family]] page covers the Five Principles, the rotating chair and the family council in detail. In December 2025 the company closed its largest deal, the $35.9 billion purchase of Kellanova (including debt). Forbes puts Mars's annual sales at about $65 billion after the deal. ## Wealth | Estimate | Figure | Rank | |---|---|---| | Forbes (October 2026) | $50.3 billion | No. 21 on the Forbes 400 (tied with Jacqueline Mars); No. 36 in the world | | Forbes World's Billionaires (March 2026) | $49.1 billion | No. 38 in the world, tied (per Northern Virginia Magazine) | | Bloomberg Billionaires Index (May 2025) | $44.6 billion | No. 33 in the world (as cited by Wikipedia) | ## Giving Forbes describes him and his wife Adrienne as significant supporters of the [[Smithsonian Institution]] (one source). One profile says he and Jacqueline run the Mars Foundation together (one source). Neither the family nor the company publishes much about its giving. This page makes no claim about his personal political contributions: FEC and OpenSecrets records have not been reviewed for this page. The family's documented footprint (no corporate PAC, estate-tax lobbying) is on [[Mars Family]]. ## See Also - [[Mars Family]] · [[Mars Inc.]] · [[Jacqueline Mars]] · [[Forrest Mars Jr.]] · [[Forrest Mars Sr.]] - [[Frank Mars]] · [[Stephen Badger II]] · [[Victoria Mars]] · [[Estate Tax]]