Meet Marina, our Global Dairy Category Lead

Having globetrotted her way around the world, from living in Canada, to studying in the UK and then working in Germany, Singapore and now Switzerland, Marina’s French heritage and international experience continues to influence and impact her approach to life – in and out of work.

“Even from a young age, I had the opportunity to travel, meet different cultures and try new and different foods, which really opened my eyes,” she said.

Path to food

But she admits her work journey to her current role as Global Dairy Category Lead wasn’t the standard Nestlé or food career path. In fact, she trained as an industrial designer, achieving a master’s degree in Industrial Design and worked across several retail focused product categories for ten years before joining Nestlé Professional.

Marina joined the Nestlé Product Technology Center in Singen, Germany over 15 years ago. As part of the innovation team, she led the concept, packaging design and value proposition design for new products across culinary brands, baby food and Nestlé Professional.

“I was part of a small starter team where our mission was to support businesses transform consumer insights into new product idea across several global brands,” she continued.

Marina then moved to Nestlé R&D Center in Singapore, where she built on this knowledge and expertise to support key brands like Maggi to boost the innovation pipeline, launching products like Maggi 3-in-1 stir fry sauce.

Core purpose

In her current role, Marina is focusing on customers to understand their needs when cooking and preparing dairy recipes, addressing their challenges in the out-of-home industry, and in turn, delighting their consumers worldwide by shaping and creating innovative concepts and dairy solutions at Nestlé Professional.

“I have the possibility to have direct contact with users and consumers. We can create custom products, have face-to-face conversations, understand what their challenges and problems are, then provide what they’re looking for to really serve their needs."

Opportunities and developments

It is Marina’s passion for people and making more possible for out of home customers with creative and innovative solutions for dairy products and desserts, which is driving her to stay focused in a challenging industry.

“Dairy is a challenging category to work in as there are strong competitors, as well as growing concerns over sustainability,” Marina explained.

“But it’s a category with very strong markets with passionate customers with similar needs. Customers from Brazil to Malaysia expect cream to perform and taste in certain ways to ensure consistently high-quality desserts that will delight their consumers."

“There is also no denying that plant-based alternatives are also changing consumer habits with the increase of non-dairy solutions, like the launch of WUNDA Professional Barista. There is so much progress happening in plant-base developments, creams and ice creams led by Nestlé R&D experts that have already been launched and are in the pipeline – so watch this space!”

Mariana will be sharing her dairy knowledge at the Global Dessert Trends webinar on June 22, 2023. https://worldchefs.org/event/global-dessert-trends-2023/