An assortment of Mars candy
Marina Bellini, President of Global Services and Digital Technologies at Mars, Incorporated, is tasked with aligning a sprawling global operation under a unified digital and operational strategy. With roughly $50 billion in revenue, Mars is a family owned, private company, now it is its fourth generation. The company spans industries from pet care and veterinary services to chocolate and food products. Bellini’s mandate includes overseeing enterprise digital technologies, shared business services and the evolution of how Mars uses scale to create value. “There are two things that are always the same across Mars, no matter the business or region,” Bellini underscored. “One of them is our culture and our principles; the other is how we leverage scale through shared services.”
Bellini is a seasoned executive who is used to expansive responsibilities with tech and digital innovation at their core. Her experiences just prior to her current one were as Chief Operations Officer of Banco Itaú, Latin America’s largest bank based in Brazil, and as Chief Information and Digital Officer of BAT (British-American Tobacco).
At Mars, Bellini’s remit is far-reaching. Her organization provides services in infrastructure, cybersecurity, data and automation. Yet her vision avoids one-size-fits-all thinking. “It is different to serve a consumer in one of our retail stores than it is to serve a pet parent at one of our clinics,” she noted. “We tailor services to fit each value-creation opportunity.” The goal is a shared model that feels personalized, scalable and digital, while reinforcing Mars’ cultural identity. “We are the glue that keeps Mars [together]
,” she said.
Balancing Scale With Business Intimacy
To support a portfolio that ranges from billion-dollar brands to emerging ventures, Bellini emphasizes both specialization and proximity. Her teams wear multiple hats, identifying as part of the shared services organization while aligning deeply with the businesses they serve. “We organize at scale by capability, but we make sure our teams feel what the businesses feel,” she explained. This includes everything from supporting veterinary diagnostics to delivering HR services for a chocolate brand.
Marina Bellini of Mars
Bellini’s operating model at Mars blends deep technical expertise with high business acumen. “We want to be a specialized team, but we are also committed to having business insight,” she said. That dual focus allows her team to operate as true partners, not just service providers. By maintaining strong cultural cohesion and a product mindset, Bellini ensures consistency while still honoring each business unit’s distinct needs. “We feel excited when we can standardize, but also when we can tailor,” she added.
Driving Value Through a Product Operating Model
A strong proponent of the product operating model, Bellini is leading a shift from digital experimentation to sustained value creation. “We want to go deep on platform and product,” she said. “It is not about go-live milestones. It is about evolving digital products version-by-version to unlock value.” The change extends beyond digital teams, requiring collaboration across all functions to scale transformation through a product lens.
Her approach integrates iterative development with tailored deployment. “The product model fits our need to learn as we go, scale through platforms and adjust to the moment our customer or pet parent is in,” she said. Bellini views this evolution as central to aligning Mars’ legacy consumer business with its growing healthcare and services segments. The model enables agility while reinforcing accountability across functions. “We are moving away from waterfall thinking and toward continuous improvement,” she emphasized.
Accelerating AI While Fortifying Data Foundations
Bellini credits her predecessors for building a strong foundation in data and analytics. Her focus now is to accelerate AI adoption responsibly and at scale. “Good data, good AI. Bad data, hallucination,” she said. “Gen AI has made the organization take data quality much more seriously.” Mars’ MAX platform, an open architecture for AI and Gen AI, supports reusability across business units while allowing for tailored solutions. For instance, AI-driven image recognition supports both pet nutrition diagnostics and manufacturing quality assurance.
Her team prioritizes a few high-impact use cases per business. “We want two or three big AI wins for the top line, two or three for the bottom line and a few more for innovation,” she explained. “The platform model helps us move faster without duplicating efforts across every business.” Rather than deploying AI everywhere, Mars is focused on value creation and scalability.
Long-Term Thinking in a Family-Owned Enterprise
As part of one of the world’s largest family-owned businesses, Bellini operates with a rare luxury: the ability to make decisions with a long-term lens. “We care a lot about results, but we care even more about building for the future,” she said. “Everything we do must benefit Mars and our associates, Mars and our partners, Mars and society.” Principles like mutuality guide every decision.
Bellini brings deep global experience to her role, having held leadership positions across Latin America, Europe and the US. That time across countries and cultures along with many past companies that she has served has given her a sensitivity about the need to adapt herself to her surroundings before applying her expertise. She emphasizes listening before acting. “I do not bring solutions into Mars. I bring experience,” she said. “It is not change for the sake of change.” She noted that she realizes that she is the one that needs to adapt first. Her perspective reinforces Mars’ culture-first approach while guiding it through the complexities of digital and operational transformation.
“Technology should improve the health of people and pets,” she added. From AI tools that speed pet diagnostics to marketing platforms powered by Gen AI, Bellini’s organization is grounded in purpose and energized by innovation. Her leadership is helping Mars modernize without losing what makes it unique.
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He has written three bestselling books, including his latest Getting to Nimble. He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.