PepsiCo: The Future of Food

Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador and founder of Bioquark, interviews Dr. Ellen de Brabander, Senior Vice President Research and Development at PepsiCo.

Ira Pastor comments:

Today we are going to segue into the food industry, which is a fascinatingly complex and diverse set of businesses that supply most of the food consumed by the global population.

The Future of Food

In 2020, food, needless to say, is much more than just calories.

It is, of course, still about about calories, but food is also about nutrition, health and wellness (and in some cases medicine), agriculture, sustainability, and even national safety and security.

Today we are joined by a wonderful guest who will be discussing these topics as well as related subjects.

Dr de Brabander driving the future of food at PepsiCo

Dr. Ellen de Brabander is Senior Vice President Research and Development at PepsiCo (the American multinational food, snack, and beverage company), and currently leads the global R&D functions including the Food Safety, Quality, External Innovation, Strategy & Portfolio Management, Nutrition Science, Sensory and Regulatory Affairs teams.

Dr Ellen de Brabander Research and Development Food, PepsiCo
Dr Ellen de Brabander, Senior Vice President of Global Research & Development at PepsiCo. Credit: PepsiCo

She is also a member of the Board of Governors at the New York Academy of Sciences and has served as Treasurer and board member of the International Life Science Institute of North America which is a US-Canadian organization that brings together scientists from government, academia and industry to uphold the scientific integrity and objectivity of nutrition and food safety science in order to ethically improve food systems for the betterment of public health.

Additionally, Dr. de Brabander has also served as the interim and founding CEO of EIT Food (part of the EU’s European Institute of Innovation and Technology), which is a unique $1.5 Billion Euro innovation consortium with more than 50 partners from industry and academia, focused on transforming the food sector by designing and delivering unique and high impact research, innovation, business creation and education programs.

Dr Ellen de Brabander
Dr Ellen Brabander, CEO of EIT Food from 2016 to 2017 after spearheading its formation. Photo Credit: EIT Food.

Dr. de Brabander has worked in a variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals, health/nutrition, and coatings and chemicals.

Dr. Ellen de Brabander’s Career in ‘the Future of Food’

Prior to joining PepsiCo, she was the Chief Scientific Officer and Global Head of Research, Development and Regulatory Affairs for Merial Limited (currently part of Boehringer Ingelheim), where she led a global team to discover and develop innovative animal health products for companion and production animals.

Prior to her role at Merial, she held executive R&D, regulatory, business strategy and program management positions at Intervet (currently Merck animal health division) and the specialty chemical company DSM.

Dr. de Brabander earned her PhD cum laude in bio-organic chemistry from Leiden University in The Netherlands and completed post-doctoral work in molecular biology at MIT with Nobel Laureate H.G. Khorana. Her PhD has been awarded as best PhD for natural sciences from Leiden University (1990; Kock award); in 2000, she was awarded the Golden Medal from the Royal Dutch Chemical Society for being the best Dutch chemist under the age of 40.

PepsiCo Academy of Sciences Winning Teams
Dr. de Brabander, left, celebrates one of the winning teams at the PepsiCo Academy of Sciences, the company’s top award for scientific achievement. Photo Credit: PepsiCo

On this show we will hear from Dr. de Brabander, Senior VP PepsiCo:

About her background, how she became interested in science, chemistry and biology, and ultimately how she worked her way into the leadership roles of some of the world’s largest chemical, pharma, and food companies. Her view of the food industry today, it’s future, and many of the parallels she sees with big pharma (personalization, customization, and specialty indications versus blockbusters) as well as the importance of data management and of the startup innovator as a partner. Her thoughts on “big food” as a major player alongside “big pharma” in the health and wellness equation moving forward in the 21st century. About her work in building/leading EIT Food, and ILSI North America, and the importance of the public-private partnership model in the $8 trillion food industry. Big Food’s role in the sustainability equation as it pertains to feeding a future world of 9-10 billion. Her role and the importance of the compliance function in industries that are taking on more regulatory burdens.

Credits: Ira Pastor interview video, text, and audio.

Ira Pastor, ideaXme ambassador
Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador

Follow Ira Pastor on Twitter: @IraSamuelPastor

If you liked this interview, be sure to check out our interview on how the UK Government plans to add 5 healthy years to UK citizen’s lives!

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2 thoughts on “PepsiCo: The Future of Food

  1. Pingback: Food Security and Agro-Terrorism: Protecting Against Zoonotic Viruses

  2. Pingback: Food Science and Technology: Dr Hamed Faridi - ideaXme

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