Barry Parkin

Barry Parkin leads two areas critical to Mars’ future business success and its role as a corporate citizen.

As Chief Sustainability Officer at Mars, Barry is responsible for developing and driving the company’s sustainability programs across its value chain from farmers through to consumers. In the five years he has held this position, Barry has worked with business leadership and operational teams to develop and articulate Mars’ corporate commitments and strategies. This work resulted in the launch of Mars’ Sustainable in a Generation Plan in September 2017, laying out the path for Mars to become a truly sustainable business. 

Barry is one of the key corporate spokespeople on Sustainability, regularly sharing his viewpoints at influencer convenings and through media interviews.  He and his team are responsible for building strong and collaborative partnerships with Mars’ suppliers, governments, development agencies, NGO’s and peer companies on a pre-competitive basis to advance sustainable development. 

Barry is also the Chairman of the World Cocoa Foundation.  In this position, he leads the industry’s collaborative efforts to advance sustainable cocoa.

In September 2017 Barry also took on leadership of the Procurement function for Mars. In this role, he is responsible for the transformation and governance of the function. Given that the goods and services that Mars sources make up a large proportion of the company’s entire environmental and social footprint, there is a strong mutual dependence between Sustainability and Procurement. 

During his 36 year career at Mars, Barry has worked in a diverse set of roles across Sustainability, Procurement, Engineering, Business Development, Supply Chain and Human Resources.  Barry holds an Engineering Science Degree from Cambridge University and is a Chartered Engineer (IMechE).

Barry is from the U.K. and currently lives in the U.S. with his wife, Sue and their four children that range in age from 16 to 31.