William Wrigley Jr. (born October 6, 1963) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

businessman, and CEO of Parallel, a company that sells cannabis products. He is the former chairman and CEO of the

Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, known as the Wrigley Company, is an American multinational chewing gum (Wrigley's gum) company, based in the Global Innovation Center (GIC) in Goose Island, Chicago, Illinois. Wrigley's is wholly owned by Mars, In ...

Early life

Wrigley is the son of Alison (Hunter) and

William Wrigley III William A. Wrigley III (January 21, 1933 – March 8, 1999), known as William Wrigley, was president of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, founded by his grandfather William Wrigley Jr., from 1961 until his death from pneumonia in March 1999. His ...

(1933–1999), the grandson of

Philip K. Wrigley Philip Knight Wrigley (December 5, 1894 – April 12, 1977), often called P. K. Wrigley, was an American chewing gum manufacturer and a Major League Baseball executive, inheriting both of those roles as the quiet son of his much more flamboyant fa ...

(1894–1977) and the great-grandson of

William Wrigley Jr. William Mills Wrigley Jr. (September 30, 1861 – January 26, 1932) was an American chewing gum industrialist. He was founder of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company in 1891. Biography William Mills Wrigley Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Penns ...

(1861–1932). Wrigley graduated from the

Phoenix Country Day School Phoenix Country Day School is a college-preparatory school located in Paradise Valley, Arizona, United States. It has an enrollment of 750 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 and follows a liberal-arts curriculum. The student-faculty ...

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. He received his undergraduate degree from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 1985 and his MBA from the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a Private university, private Ivy League rese ...

Career

Under his leadership the company expanded beyond

chewing gum Chewing gum is a soft, cohesive substance designed to be chewed without being swallowed. Modern chewing gum is composed of gum base, sweeteners, softeners/plasticizers, flavors, colors, and, typically, a hard or powdered polyol coating. Its te ...

by purchasing

Altoids Altoids are a brand of mints, sold primarily in distinctive metal tins. The brand was created by the London-based Smith & Company in the 1780s, and became part of the Callard & Bowser company in the 19th century. Their advertising slogan is "The ...

and

Life Savers Life Savers (stylized as LifeSavers) is an American brand of ring-shaped hard and soft candy. Its range of mints and fruit-flavored candies is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in paper-wrapped aluminum foil rolls. Candy manufacturer C ...

from

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arra ...

' candy division in addition to Spanish confectionery company Joyco. He turned over the office of CEO to William Perez in October 2006. Perez, former CEO of

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine given ...

and

SC Johnson S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. (commonly referred to as S. C. Johnson) is an American multinational, privately held manufacturer of household cleaning supplies and other consumer chemicals based in Racine, Wisconsin. In 2017, S. C. Jo ...

, was the first non-Wrigley head of the company.

Timeline at Wrigley Co

* Joined in 1985 * Director since 1988 * Vice President (1991–1998) * Senior Vice President (1999) * President & Chief Executive Officer (1999–2006) * Chairman of the Board since 2004 * Executive Chairman since 2006 * Retired 2008

References

1963 births Living people American billionaires Businesspeople in confectionery American chief executives of food industry companies Latin School of Chicago alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni Wrigley family Businesspeople from Chicago Duke University alumni 20th-century American businesspeople Henry Crown Fellows {{US-business-bio-1960s-stub