Mars Food & Nutrition named Karina Zimerfeld as vice president of the business' R&D function, reporting to Shaid Shah, president Mars Food & Nutrition. Zimerfeld will serve as a member of the Global Food & Nutrition Leadership Team, and the Mars, Incorporated, Global R&D Leadership Team.
The Mars Food & Nutrition business is headquartered in London and has 2000 Associates across 30 countries working to bring to life the segment's Purpose: Better Food Today. A Better World Tomorrow. The business is building a vibrant, fast-growing portfolio of nutritious, flavorful, convenient products that delight consumers. Today, it includes best-loved brands such as BEN'S ORIGINAL™, MASTERFOODS™, SEEDS OF CHANGE™, TASTY BITE™, and DOLMIO™. Its recent innovations include BEN'S ORIGINAL™ One Pan Creations and BEN'S ORIGINAL™ Plant Powered range, which won the 2023 UK Product of the Year award in the vegetarian category.
In her role Zimerfeld will lead R&D for Mars Food & Nutrition, including overseeing R&D Innovation, Quality and Food Safety, Science & Technology, and Scientific & Regulatory Affairs.
Zimerfeld joins Mars after an outstanding 25-year career with Unilever, where she was most recently global vice president R&D for Unilever's foodservice business unit leading it through a significant business transformation with numerous initiatives focused on digital, customer-centric, healthy and sustainable innovations. Prior, she held several senior R&D leadership roles based in Latin America, Europe and globally for multiple food and nutrition categories, both in business-to-consumer and business-to-business.
Zimerfeld has a degree in food engineering and an MBA, underpinning a strong track record of leveraging science, technology and external partnerships to create value for brands and growth opportunities for businesses.
