CHICAGO (July 16, 2020) — Mars Wrigley announces the appointment of Cathryn Sleight to the newly expanded role of Global Chief Growth Officer. This position will lead Mars Wrigley’s global marketing, innovation, insights and analytics together with the business development agenda for the segment. Sleight, currently serving as President of Global Business Development and reporting to Mars Wrigley Global President Andrew Clarke, broadens her remit to assume end-to-end responsibility for global category growth. The transition comes upon Berta de Pablos Barbier’s personal decision to step down from her current role as Global Chief Growth Officer to pursue an international move back home with her family after a successful 18-year career with Mars.
“I’m delighted to expand Cathryn’s remit and bring together the critical core capabilities required to deliver category growth. She will continue to drive excellence in how we utilize our global reach, iconic brands and brilliant Associates to build the category and evolve how brands connect with consumers,” said Andrew Clarke, Global President of Mars Wrigley. “We will miss Berta’s energy and authentic leadership. She and her team have made important contributions to Mars Wrigley’s ambition to create the future of treating and snacking, galvanizing the Marketing function by bringing growth levers and capabilities together with innovation and insights.”
Sleight commented: “I was first attracted to Mars as a purpose-led, principles-driven business. Working with some of the world’s biggest and most-loved brands that I’ve grown up with, with such a talented team of Associates and partners is a huge privilege. Treating and snacking is a vibrant and expansive category with tremendous growth potential. The opportunity to strengthen the legacy of our brands, continuing to make them relevant for today’s occasions and inspire more smiles across the globe is a great brief.”
Since joining in August 2019, Cathryn Sleight has been a member of the Mars Wrigley Leadership Team, sharpening our business development and reinvention strategy. Prior to joining Mars, Sleight had established a successful, 30-plus year marketing career at major multinational food and beverage companies including The Coca-Cola Company and Unilever where latterly she led the Global Food Category as EVP, spending nearly a decade developing and executing global brand renovation and innovation agendas and leading strategies to identify M&A and new category growth opportunities.
To ensure a smooth transition, Berta de Pablos Barbier will leave Mars Wrigley at the end of September after an impressive career which began as an R&D intern, and spanned four continents, six countries and various functional and business leadership positions including her most recent role as Global Chief Growth Officer. Her vision has been instrumental in brand successes like the 75th anniversary of M&Ms, our Dove Chocolate partnership with CARE International to help women in cocoa growing communities; and for the U.S. integration of Mars Chocolate and Wrigley.
Reflecting on nearly two decades with Mars, de Pablos adds: “Mars has been an incredible home for me to build my career doing the work I love to build brands and cultivate talent across a global business. As a family-owned company that has supported my development across myriad roles and locations, Mars fully understood my decision to put my family at the center of my next best move. I leave with gratitude for the fantastic partners, mentors and Associates I’ve found here, and pride for the impact we’ve made together.”
About Mars, IncorporatedFor more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us. Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 125,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’s®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, ORBIT®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, SKITTLES®, UNCLE BEN’S®, WHISKAS®, COCOAVIA®, and 5™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our nutrition, health and services businesses, including AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, and VCA™. We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive. For more information about Mars, please visit www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
Mars Wrigley
