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Food & Beverage in food categories such as coffee (soluble and RTD), chocolate, bakery products, sauces (liquid, paste and powder), frozen culinary, chilled desserts, shelf stable dessert (liquid and powder), plant-based meat mimetics, soya beverages, canned and flexible retort products, instant culinary (porridge, soups, pasta, noodles), dairy and nutritional products for seniors, products for Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) and food services
Dr Rebecca Lian is a veteran and expert in the food industries and presently holds the position as Chief Technology Officer of Green Planet Foods, a start-up that aims to deliver affordable, healthy food and beverages that cater to the Chinese market. She is an Innovation Advisor with IPI and is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Rebecca spent close to 34 years with Nestle holding various leadership positions. She last helmed the China Nestle R&D leadership and set up four competent R&D centres in Beijing, Shanghai, Dongguan and Xiamen. Rebecca was part of the pioneer Nestle team to bring factories and manufacturing operations into China for the Group. During her 24 years in China, Rebecca was responsible for launches of new products across multiple food product categories such as frozen foods, ambient culinary, coffee and beverages, dairy, nutrition for seniors, confectionery and snacks, products for food service and quick service restaurant (QSR) for the Chinese market and also Asia Pacific.
On returning to Singapore after the China assignment, Rebecca was appointed Distinguished Fellow at Wilmar International, one of Singapore’s largest food and agri-food companies. She was also the Co-Lab Director for the Food Lab, a collaboration between Wilmar, National University of Singapore (NUS) and Clinical Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC), and spearheaded the development of personalised food products for clinical trials addressing metabolic disorder syndrome in addition to leading the product innovation for markets in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa.
Rebecca received her Bachelor’s degree (First Class Honours) and PhD in Food Technology from Reading University, United Kingdom. She also completed a course on Mastering Technology Enterprise at IMD in Switzerland.
Hear more insights from Rebecca:
- Success Stories - Innovation Advisory Creates New Value through Efficient Upcycling of Spent Grains / Cooking up Shelf-stable Sauces for International Markets
- 'Insights, Accessed' Video Series - Driving innovation and internationalisation in the Food Industry (youtube.com)
