Lead Scientist

The Client

Fonterra Cooperative Group, headquartered in New Zealand, is one of the world’s largest exporters of dairy products, with nearly 30% of the world’s dairy exports handled by the company, which has an annual revenue of roughly $22 billion New Zealand dollars. A leader in dairy science and innovation, the owner of a significant portfolio of brands in Asia and the Pacific, and a partner to many of the world's leading food companies.

The Challenge

Fonterra was seeking an individual to lead the science programme for Active Living Specialty Nutrition in the US. This person would be responsible for owning the clinical value proposition for the Active Living Specialty Ingredients portfolio and leading the dissemination of clinical support evidence to customers, partners, and regional sales teams. The role required someone with a strong scientific background coupled with a commercial edge to deliver impact. This would be a highly collaborative role, working with cross functional teams across business and science.

The Solution

We led a US search to identify candidates with a PhD and post-graduate clinical research experience working in leading food and nutrition businesses. A successful candidate was identified from Nestle US, someone with strong experience in setting up, executing, reporting and presenting clinical trials, and pre-clinical trials. This was a unique candidate who had spent time working internationally across other leading science innovation centres; she was bilingual and had a proven track record of speaking and presenting at leading nutrition and probiotic conferences.