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. 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 Diane Mars 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. She attended Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia, from which she graduated in 1974. She graduated from Yale University. 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. 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. 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. Mars rarely grants interviews, and in 2016 she noted this was an aspect of the Mars corporation that was behind the times. 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, 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.
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