Beyond FIPDes...
FIPDes alumni tell us what they are up to after graduation!
FIPDes graduates find employment within months of their graduation in a great variety of companies and positions in their home country or abroad.
Tomaz Verdinek (Slovenia), Cohort 6 (2016-2018) enrolled in the Kerry Graduate Development Programme in Ireland:
Since I have joined the business as Graduate RD&A Technologist for Meats, I have been learning a lot of Kerry technologies, applications and projects my team is working on. Our team provides custom based solutions for emerging trends in meat industry, whether this is development of improved (low salt, better texture, etc.) meat products, or development of authentic innovative products (such as meat free burgers). I also have started my graduate development programme and will attend residential training courses over the course of my two year programme. This focuses on my Leadership development whilst I learn the technical detail working in the day job with the support of my Manager and Mentor.
I really love working in Kerry because every day I learn something new, I have a great support in my team and my position is treated as of any other employees in Kerry. I would love to help other students looking for their graduate role by sharing this with them and raising the profile of Kerry with FIPDes students."
Please find below some examples from the first cohort (2011-2013) of FIPDes alumni.
Ivi Kalyvioti (Greece) is now Jr Packaging Development Technologist at HJ Heinz, in the Netherlands.
Karla Marie Paredes (Philippines) is currently a PhD student in Innovation Engineering at Lund University, Sweden.
Viridiana Pineda (Mexico) has been hired by Nestlé as an Associate Scientist. She is working in France, next to Amiens.
George Olang (Kenya) is now a Beverage technical custumer service and application manager for East Africa at Döhler GmbH. After a six-months training at the company headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, he will work in Dölher office of Nairobi, Kenya.
Andra Riandita (Indonesia) was recruited as a lecturer in the School of Business and Management ITB of the Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia.
J. Ignacio Vargas (México) is now head of the R&D department for Nutrisa, the biggest frozen yogurt company in Mexico. As well, he is a teacher at the Biotechnology and Chemical Engineering Department at Tecnológico de Monterrey.
Discussing food and innovation in fun, relaxed, and easy-to-digest bites!
innobites is a blog started by some FIPDes alumni. After living, studying, traveling, and experiencing new things together for two years, they wanted to keep the talk about food innovation alive between them so they made innobites.com, which is also a way of sharing with other people some interesting stories and personal insights about what’s going on in the food industry. Aside from talking about their own experiences, they also share articles about global products, food packaging, industry news, new trends, marketing campaigns, sustainable solutions, and other food innovation-related topics.
Studying Coffee Economics and Science in Italy, at Illy
During FIPDes, Su Chengcheng had the opportunity to work for the Research and Innovation department of illycaffè as an intern. During her four-month stay in illy, she started to drink authentic Italian coffees Italian style. She was able to speak with the students from the Class of 2013 of the Master’s in Coffee Economics and Science and see what was so attractive about this program.
She attended several seminars to get a closer look at the world of coffee, etc. This brought her so much fun and changed her personal outlook towards her career planning to a great extent. She is currently enrolled in the Master’s in Coffee Economics and Science and the first Chinese person to attend this program.
(text and picture from Circolo Illy)
"FIPDes trains the professionals of tomorrow"Daniel Hellström, teacher-researcher, Lund University, Sweden
- Updated March 2019 -