Portfolio manager, Spreads and Cooking-products Category, Unilever R&D, Vlaardingen, The Netherlands
I came to Vlaardingen in 2003. Before that I was working for a Unilever sourcing unit in Bavaria, my first real job after graduating from university. I am a product developer and worked with fresh cheese in Bavaria. One day, an interesting position was offered to me and I thought, "great opportunity". My boss knew that I was interested to see a bit more of the Unilever world. I didn't expect it to happen so early, but within Unilever things can happen fast. To be frank I never planned to live in Rotterdam. Having worked in one of the most beautiful surroundings - close to the Alps - I thought Rotterdam was an ugly place. But as soon as I settled down I found I really liked it. Rotterdam is great; it has a lot of culture, excitement and activities. For young people it’s a fantastic place to be!
I work in an interface role within the spreads and cooking-products category. I maintain an overview of our innovation projects globally. What that means is that I prepare portfolio reviews in which we identify the top priority projects per brand and region. Basically the outcome of what I’m doing is a solid, growth-delivering innovation portfolio with a long-term focus. Of course I do this in collaboration with Marketing, with Finance and with the research & development programme directors.
The question is really, what do we want to do? We want to grow. How do we grow? We grow by putting new products and new innovations on the market. This is where my group comes in. We identify innovations on an ongoing basis. For instance we want to introduce the next generation of spreads. We want them to be even healthier than they are at the moment. So we define projects, staff those projects with the best people we can find, and then we ensure those projects are delivering. This is exciting. I love what we are doing.
I studied food technology. I chose this subject because it includes economics, processing, process engineering and biology, physics, chemistry. It's such a mix of subjects and accumulated knowledge. Why did I choose Unilever? Well because my criteria for an employer were: a multinational, a job that allows me to go abroad, an international environment and of course, a job with career opportunities. This is what I really like about Unilever. You have a full range of opportunities. And I’m making use of them.
