Forrest Mars Sr.

Forrest Edward Mars Sr. (March 21, 1904 – July 1, 1999) was an American billionaire businessman and the driving force of the candy company Mars Inc. until 1973.

Born in Minnesota, his father Frank Mars established the Mars company during Forrest's childhood. As a young man, Forrest Mars started working at the company in 1929, the same year when it moved over to Chicago. Wanting to expand abroad and becoming estranged from his father, Forrest moved to Europe where he founded his own Mars company in the English town of Slough. There, he created the Mars (1932) and Maltesers (1936) chocolate bars, making Mars a major candy company in Britain. Mars also expanded into petfoods, founding Pedigree Petfoods.

After the start of World War II, Mars resided in the United States where he created a joint venture that led to the creation of M&M's chocolate in 1941, and in another venture with a Texan businessman created Uncle Ben's Rice. Mars won control of his late father's company in Chicago in 1964, merging his own British-based Mars company into it. He handed over the Mars company to his children in 1973 and later still founded Ethel M Chocolates.