Mars Announces New Chief Customer Officer for the Mars Food & Nutrition North America Business

CHICAGO, Jan. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Mars, Incorporated, makers of iconic brands including Ben's Original™, M&M'S^® and PEDIGREE^®, announced that CPG industry veteran Lauren Larsen has joined the company as Chief Customer Officer for Mars Food & Nutrition, North America.

"We're excited to welcome Lauren to the Food & Nutrition North America Leadership Team," said Dave Dusangh, Regional President, Mars Food & Nutrition, North America. "Her ability to build high-performing sales organizations and drive commercial excellence will help accelerate growth across our portfolio, strengthen trusted customer partnerships, and deliver against the shared goals we hold with our retail partners around quality, value, and long-term growth, while reinforcing the principles that make Mars a great place to work."

Lauren brings 18 years of extensive CPG sales, category management, and commercial strategy experience across multiple leading consumer brands and companies, including Procter & Gamble and Glanbia. Throughout her career, she has spearheaded sales strategies and category growth initiatives, building high-performing teams and driving market penetration across retail channels and consumer segments in competitive markets.

In her new role as Chief Customer Officer, Lauren will lead sales strategies to drive growth and market penetration across the U.S. for the rice and ready meal categories. She will oversee sales plans for Ben's Original™, Seeds of Change™, and Tasty Bite^®, as well as other strategic initiatives to maximize value creation and drive commercial excellence across the business.

Lauren said: "Mars Food & Nutrition stands out for the strength of its brands and the way it partners with customers to deliver quality and value at scale. The portfolio plays an important role in everyday meals for families across North America, and I'm excited by the opportunity to build on that foundation, working closely with retail partners to unlock growth, strengthen execution, and help position the business for long-term success."

ABOUT MARS, INCORPORATED

Mars, Incorporated is driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. As a $65bn+ family-owned business, our diverse and expanding portfolio of leading pet care products and veterinary services support pets all around the world and our quality snacking and food products delight millions of people every day. We produce some of the world's best-loved brands including ROYAL CANIN^®, PEDIGREE^®, WHISKAS^®, CESAR^®, M&M'S^®, SNICKERS^®, Pringles^®, Cheez-It^®, and BEN'S ORIGINAL™. Our international networks of pet hospitals, including BANFIELD™, BLUEPEARL™, VCA™ and ANICURA™ span preventive, general, specialty, and emergency veterinary care, and our global veterinary diagnostics business ANTECH^® offers breakthrough capabilities in pet diagnostics. The Mars Five Principles — Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom — inspire our more than 170,000 Associates to act every day to help create a better world for people, pets and the planet.

For more information about Mars, please visit www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

SOURCE Mars, Incorporated