Mondelēz drives innovation focus with SnackFutures VP appointment
pic: Mondelez
Mondelēz International has named Richie Gray as vice president and global head of its SnackFutures venture arm, reports Neill Barston.
He is presently VP, commercial products for the company’s European operations, but will now turn his attention to nurturing emerging talents across the sector.
As the company explained, Richie’s career spans over two decades, beginning his journey at the Kraft Foods Group in 1998 as part of the UK business unit.
Throughout the years, he has held various leadership positions in Marketing, Sales, Strategy, and M&A. Most recently, as VP Commercial Projects, he led Marketing and R&D for the acquisition of Chipita S.A. and during the preparation for full integration with Mondelez.
Furthermore, he has also recently been leading the Commercial functions for Europe in support of our recently announced agreement with Perfetti Van Melle to acquire our Developed Market Gum business in EU and North America.
As the company has explained on its SnackFutures venture, it has partnered with future innovators who have in many cases taken a slightly different approach to drive forward their respective product designs.
Moreover, as the snacks business explained, the international venture has taken approach of seeking out talents around the world, and enabling them the opportunity to growth with access to its research and development facilities.
The scheme, which was first unveiled five years ago has seen the business strike up partnerships with scientists, entrepreneurs, incubators, venture capitalists, innovators, suppliers and culinary trendsetters.
As the business noted, its global is to provide a mutual support system that aims to push the boundaries of the industry in driving fresh innovation.
Following two initial years of successful intakes, Mondelēz International recently recruited for the third edition of its SnackFutures-linked CoLab 2023 initiative, focused on supporting dynamic start-up businesses.
Significantly, the innovation and venture hub scheme, targeting its US market, was devised to bring together ‘big and small’ to drive growth within the industry, with trading challenges around the world meaning start-up ventures require as much support as possible.