John Mars, chairman of the candy and pet-food company Mars Inc., is ranked No. 38 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, tied with his sister Jacqueline, with a net worth of $49.1 billion.
John Franklyn Mars was born on October 15, 1935. He is the son of Audrey Ruth (Meyer) and Forrest Mars Sr., and the grandson of Franklin Clarence Mars, who founded Mars Inc. He graduated from the Hotchkiss School in 1953 and from Yale University.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 38 (tied with Jacqueline Mars), with $49.1 billion
- Earlier estimate: Bloomberg put his net worth at $44.6 billion in May 2025, according to Wikipedia
Growth of His Fortune
As a Mars family member, his share of the company and other assets was worth $10 billion in September 2010, according to Forbes, which then made him the 52nd richest person in the world. By October 2012 Forbes put it at $20.1 billion, and in 2016 at $29 billion, which made him the 19th-richest person in the world.
Business
- Chairman: he is the chairman of Mars, Inc.
- 2017: in January Mars Inc. paid $7.7 billion for VCA Inc., a pet-care company
Honours and Privacy
In March 2015 Queen Elizabeth II gave him an honorary knighthood at Windsor Castle. In the Forbes rankings from 2010 to 2014 he was the highest-ranked person whose photograph the magazine could not obtain.
Personal Life
He married Adrienne Bevis in June 1958, and they have three children, Linda, Frank and Michael. He formerly lived in Fairfax County, Virginia, and now lives in Jackson, Wyoming.
Why It Matters
Mars Inc. is a private company with global brands in confectionery, food and pet care, and the Mars family is one of the richest in the United States.
Net worth figures change daily with share prices. Rankings here follow the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, with wealth measured on March 1, 2026.
Image: A Mars Incorporated site at Veghel in the Netherlands (file photo, 2013; John Mars is not pictured). Photo: J187B / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
