Lara McCauley is currently Global Vice President, Strategic Business Communications for Mars, Incorporated. In this role, she leads the Global Internal Communications (IC) practice at Mars including Executive, Leadership and Change communication as well as communication to all Mars Associates. Lara leads a team of communicators that drive internal communications and activations around the Mars Purpose and Brand; bring the Mars business strategy to life with senior leaders and all 140,000 Mars Associates; manage our internal digital communications channels and build capabilities in internal communications across the business. She also leads the Mars Community Engagement and Philanthropy Strategy including disaster relief. Lara is responsible for our CEO’s internal communications and how we communicate with the Mars Family – ensuring there is engagement and communication between the business and the family owners.

In this role, she also is responsible for the Mars Board of Directors and Mars Leadership Team effectiveness, including working with the Office of the President and the Chairman of the Board on setting the agendas and cadence of Board and MLT discussions in service of advancing their strategic priorities. Lara is a member of the Corporate Affairs Leadership Team.

In her previous role, she was Vice President of Business & Change Communications, and before that Senior Director, Global Internal Communications and Community Engagement for Mars. Lara also spent time in Mars Food North America as VP Corporate Affairs – responsible for leading the Corporate Affairs function for North America Food including internal and external communications, issues and crisis management, consumer care, PR/Corporate reputation, government affairs and Associate and stakeholder engagement. Before joining the Mars Food business, Lara worked in the Mars Corporate office managing the operations of the global Corporate Affairs function, leading the effectiveness of the Corporate Affairs Leadership Team and running the Corporate Affairs College within Mars University, Mars’ internal learning and development platform.

Prior to joining Mars, Lara was a management consultant at Accenture and then Morgan Franklin where Mars was a major client. At Accenture, Lara worked on business process improvement and systems implementations for their federal practice. While at Morgan Franklin she led business process improvement and change management disciplines in their commercial practice. Lara was staffed on several Mars projects from 2008 to 2010 when she joined Mars.

Lara grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and attended the University of Virginia where she earned a degree in History and International Relations. She currently resides in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband Sergio. She is an avid American Football fan and enjoys anything to do with sports and exercise. She loves to travel, entertain, as well as collect (and sample!) wines from around the world.