Campbell’s Soup gets a Gen X makeover — 42-year-old fashion exec joins her family at $9 billion canned-soup-and-snacks giant
- The great-granddaughter of the inventor of condensed soup has joined the fam at Campbell’s, the company announced this week. The daughter of late billionaire Campbell’s heiress Mary Alice Dorrance Malone will serve on the board following her mother’s death last month.
The Campbell’s Company on Friday announced it had elected 42-year-old luxury fashion entrepreneur Mary Alice Dorrance Malone Jr. to its board, continuing a family legacy that has spanned more than a century.
Malone Jr. is filling a board seat at the Fortune 500 company that her mother, with whom she shares the name Mary Alice Dorrance Malone, held for 35 years before passing away in June 2025 at the age of 75. The billionaire was Campbell’s largest shareholder and the longest-tenured member of the board, at one point even fending off an activist attack from Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund. Malone Jr. is also the great-granddaughter of Dr. John T. Dorrance, who invented condensed soup and served as president of the company from 1914 to 1930. Her grandfather, John T. Dorrance Jr., chaired Campbell’s from 1962 to 1984. Other members of Malone Jr.’s family including Bennett Dorrance Jr. and Archbold D. van Beuren also serve on the board.
Collectively, the Dorrance family holds more than 23% of the company, and Forbes counts the family as among America’s richest, with a net worth valued at $17 billion.
However, Malone Jr.’s appointment comes at a pivotal time for Campbell’s. The company’s stock price has dropped more than 25% year to date, and its earnings per share decreased 24% in 2024 versus 2023. It renamed itself from “Campbell Soup Company” to The Campbell’s Company in November 2024 to better reflect its other standout brands which include Cape Cod, Goldfish, Kettle Brand, Pepperidge Farm, Swanson, and V8. In recent years, the company has shifted its portfolio mix with total sales focused more on revenues from snacks and brands such as Rao’s rather than core soup operations.
The board executed a CEO transition at the start of the year. Mick Beekhuizen, another Gen Xer at age 48, took the role effective in February. Malone Jr. brings with her nearly 20 years in the fashion business, having founded luxury shoe line Malone Souliers in 2014, where she serves as chief brand director. The line’s iconic “Maurene” leather mule retails for more than $600 and is handcrafted in Italy. The company has also partnered with Netflix series Emily in Paris and Bridgerton, according to its website.
In a statement, Campbell’s board chair Keith McLoughlin welcomed her to the team.
“Mary Alice’s unique blend of creative, analytical and entrepreneurial experience and deep appreciation of Campbell’s history will be an asset to the Board and the company,” said McLouglin.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com