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Mars Vice President and LSST students navigate purpose, principles, and philanthropy

Kunal Chan Mehta

By Kunal Chan Mehta | Article Date: 14 February 2022

Stefan Hartung
Source: LSST

Distinctly different but equally extraordinary: Father, talent bellwether, purpose pedant, elegance aficionado – the powerhouse of principles – that is Andy Pharoah – the Mars Inc Vice President of Corporate Affairs & Sustainability. Here, with great elan, he talks family, brand, philanthropy, pandemic-purgatory, plastic-pollution, and even opera with LSST students in a particularly open, bold, and honest conversation from his long-ensconced Washington DC office. Our discovery? There’s an art to being Andy.

Insight and Inspiration

Every second, nearly 1,000 Mars products are consumed around the world. But if you want to understand Mars beyond a group of globally loved brands - such as the delectable Mars Ice Cream, M&M’s and Bounty (author’s pick) - a great place to start is Andy. For LSST students, it was always going to be special to speak with a purpose-driven Mars icon. How could it not be? For Andy – it was a sincere and candid conversation about his longstanding role – a whopping 14 years – at Mars. Although Andy prefers to let his work do the talking, after two years of pandemic purgatory, and now amid a para-Covid environment, he knew this was a moment to speak. And speak he does.

Elegance is an attitude

Leadership without purpose is likely to founder. At his desk at 7.30am each day managing global teams, throughout it all, Andy told LSST students that he had a significant purpose and, while agreeing that Mars’ Associates (they do not use the word ‘employee’) were united by their differences, he wanted to make the many Mars’ products and services even better with broader diversity standards and a fuller focus on the future – about what comes next for imminent generations exactly. For Andy, Mars moved him and made him. He was always in it for the long haul.

Creating better moments and more smiles. In a candid conversation with LSST students, Andy explores and reflects on the aspirations, anxieties and accomplishments that brought him to the seat of Vice President at Mars Inc and the colossal expectations placed upon him (source: LSST)

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Mars Inc - Loredana Forward, LSST Student Ambassador, asks questions on reputation and retention.

The video was lightly edited for clarity and duration.

Student participants

Norman Campbell, Business Management (Year 1), LSST Elephant and Castle Alice Mijea, Health and Social Science (Year 2), LSST Elephant and Castle Maureen Barnor, Health and Social Science Year 3), LSST Wembley Central Zsofia Borbely, Business Management (Year 1), LSST Wembley Central Claudia Talaz, Business Management (Foundation Year), LSST Luton Loredana Forward, Business Management (Year 3), LSST Aston (Birmingham) Ciprian Matei, Business Management (Year 3), LSST Aston (Birmingham)

Acknowledgements: Francesca Tommasini, LSST’s Engagement Officer and Employability and Careers Lead, Hichem Atoui, LSST’s VLE Developer, and Imran Termezy, LSST’s Data and VLE Officer, provided purposive support and ongoing student coordination for this project.

Mars in a moment

Stefan Hartung
Source: Mars (2022)

Explore more at www.mars.com

For exciting Mars careers visit https://careers.mars.com/uk/en

Please contact the author for any questions or comments on kunal.mehta@lsst.ac

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