Mary Wagner joins Mars Botanical

Rockville, Md.-based Mars Botanical has hired Mary Wagner as its general manager and chief technology officer.  Wagner will be responsible for the management of the Mars Botanical business, including the continued development of a sustainable supply chain for high cocoa flavanol cocoa beans, as well as oversight for portions of the Mars, Inc. global cocoa flavanol research and development portfolio. 

Most recently from E & J Gallo Winery, Wagner brings more than 25 years of food industry research and development, product innovation and quality assurance experience to Mars Botanical. It was the synergies in flavanol benefits that exist between grapes and cocoa, and the quality and quantity of the Mars flavanol research portfolio that first drew Wagner to the potential at Mars.

“The opportunity to work on this leading edge science, bringing some of these learning’s to fruition for consumers while drawing on my previous flavanol experience, is what really energized me about this opportunity,” said Wagner. As a newly-created scientific division of Mars, Inc., Mars Botanical is dedicated to research and product development involving flavanols – naturally occurring plant compounds or phytonutrients found in cocoa, tea, wine, nuts and certain fruits and vegetables.