# Victoria Mars **Victoria B. Mars** (born about 1956) is a daughter of [[Forrest Mars Jr.]] and chaired the [[Mars Inc.]] board of directors from 2014 to 2017. She is fourth generation counting from founder Frank C. Mars, or third counting from [[Forrest Mars Sr.]], as the [[Mars Family]] page does. The KB tracks her as the clearest example of how the family governs a private company it owns outright: family members hold the board chair in turn, while professional executives run the business. The shared family story lives on [[Mars Family]]. ## Background - Daughter of [[Forrest Mars Jr.]] and Virginia Cretella; one of four daughters - Yale University (B.A.); Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (MBA, 1984) - Inherited a stake of about 8% in Mars after her father's death in 2016, like each of her sisters - Lives in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania (Bloomberg) ## Career at Mars | Years | Role | |---|---| | 1978 | Assistant brand manager, Haguenau, France (first Mars job) | | 1980s–1990s | Brand and management roles at Mars Electronics International and Dove; later vice president of services and finance | | 1997–2013 | Mars's first ombudsman, running a confidential conflict-resolution channel for employees | | 2006 | Joined the board of directors | | 2014–2017 | Chairman of the board | ## The rotating chair She took the chair in 2014 from her cousin [[Stephen Badger II]], son of [[Jacqueline Mars]], who had held it since March 2011. Badger returned as chairman in March 2017. The handoff shows the family's governance model at work. Ownership is split among three branches descended from Forrest Sr.'s children, and the chair moves between them. The company has been run by non-family chief executives since Forrest Sr. stepped back in 1969. ## Public role Her main public role outside Mars has been at Salzburg Global Seminar, the Austrian-American forum for policy dialogue. She joined its board in 2015 and served three terms, including seven years as chairman. Salzburg Global now lists her as chairman emerita and has awarded her its Salzburg Cup. Salzburg Global's biography also lists her as a current Mars director, but the page is undated (one source). ## See Also - [[Mars Family]] · [[Mars Inc.]] · [[Forrest Mars Jr.]] · [[Forrest Mars Sr.]] · [[Stephen Badger II]] · [[Jacqueline Mars]] · [[John Mars]]