Mars Incorporated appoints new equity, inclusion and diversity director for North America

Mars Incorporated, a leader in confectionery, snacking, food, and pet care products and services and the maker of some of the world’s most-loved brands, including M&M’S^®, SNICKERS^®, BEN’S ORIGINAL™, PEDIGREE^®, and IAMS^®, announced Flavia Moreira as Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Director for North America.

In her new role, Moreira will lead Equity, Inclusion & Diversity across all Mars North American businesses. She will be responsible for creating a cross-segment shared vision, developing a measurement strategy to track progress, and creating a communication plan covering growth, insights, and best practices.

“At Mars, we strive to ensure all Associates feel encouraged to be themselves and supported to reach their full potential,” said Ibtehal Fathy, Global Inclusion & Diversity Officer. “To achieve this, we are hyper focused on building an inclusive and diverse workplace. Flavia brings a wealth of knowledge and unmatched success as a diversity and inclusion leader and we are thrilled to have her on our team.”

To track against its inclusion and diversity progress, Mars has outlined specific and measurable ambitions tied to inclusion, gender balance, and workforce representation:

• Mars strives to build an inclusive culture where all of its Associates can achieve their full potential. The company continues track its progress against its goal as measured by the Mars Associate Survey, which also serves as its internal inclusion barometer.
• Mars aspires to achieve gender balance across one hundred percent of its leadership teams. The company rolled out its Full Potential platform to help advance gender equity and its #HereToBeHeard global listening study to help amplify the voices of women across the globe.
• Mars believes its leadership teams and Associate representation should reflect the race and ethnicities of the labor force in the markets in which it operates. The company is working to increase racial minority representation among management in its U.S.-based consumer-packaged goods businesses by forty percent and is promoting expanded opportunities for all racial minorities across its total workforce. Mars is also aiming to strengthen its senior leader representation from Emerging Markets by twenty percent.

As a certified executive coach by the International Coaching Federation, Flavia has taught leadership around the world. She has comprehensive HR and leadership development experience, working with global companies such as Kraft Foods (now Mondelez in Brazil), GlaxoSmithKline, Mercedes Benz, BG Group (now Shell), and most recently at Lenovo as the Global D&I Director. Under her leadership, Flavia helped the technology company grow its executive representation of women and historically under-represented ethnic and racial groups, and significantly increased overall employee sentiment around diversity and inclusion.

“At Mars, the world we want tomorrow is inclusive and diverse and it begins with an unfiltered look in our own mirror,” said Anton Vincent, Regional President for One Mars across North America. “Strong leadership in the EI&D field will play a critical role in helping Mars foster an environment where our more than 130,000 Associates feel valued and respected, where they are comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work, where they enjoy equal opportunities to be heard and where they feel supported to reach their full potential.”

“I am thrilled to join Mars, a purpose-led and principles-driven organization, filled with Associates committed to making a positive impact on the world,” Moreira said. “My personal mission in life is to facilitate growth and help people and organizations create exciting futures, which is exactly what I intend to do at Mars.”

Flavia was born and raised in Brazil and lived and worked in Germany before moving to the U.S. in 2016. She holds a master’s degree in Business Administration and Management from IBMEC in Brazil.