Closing Keynote

Delighting Consumers: What I Have Learned Over 20 Years from Hanging Out With Sensory Scientists

Friday, October 28  •  10:45 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Cherie Floyd, Kellogg North America Snacks

To survive in the packaged goods segment, we must strive to delight consumers every day which is easier to say than to do. Drawing on 20 years of experience bringing new food products to the market place, Cherie will share with you her “lessons learned” from her past successes and failures working in hand in hand with her sensory scientist partners in U.S. and international markets. She will also provide some hypotheses of how we will need to operate in the future as the world becomes more complex and how sensory scientists will play an even more important role in shaping the ways that we can win by delighting consumers.

 Cherie Floyd is currently the Vice President for Kellogg North America Snacks R&D responsible for product lines including Special K Snacks, Nutri-Grain Bars, Rice Krispie Treats, Keebler Crackers and Cookies, Cheez It, and Pringles. Cherie joined Kellogg in 2003 as a product development scientist and has held numerous roles in various U.S. and International Business Units working on cereal, snacks, frozen waffles, and frozen vegetarian products as well as longer term technical and idea pipeline building. Prior to Kellogg, she had 7 years of experience with General Mills and Pillsbury as a product developer on a variety of food platforms including cereal and bakery items. Cherie has a Bachelor of Science in Food Technology from Texas Tech University and a Master’s of Science and a PhD in Food Science from Texas A&M University.