Liz Ford is the Director of Open Innovation for Ingredion Incorporated. In this role, she created and oversees the Company’s Global Open Innovation program, which involves developing external partnerships, matched to the needs of our global technology and business growth platforms. She brings 30+ years of international industrial experience, working in the U.S. and as an expatriate in the U.K. and the Netherlands.
Liz began her career at Unilever as a Research Chemist. She quickly moved on to hold management positions in Regulatory and Environment, Safety & Health. As the first expatriate from Unilever Research US, she took on assignments in Strategic Planning, Industrial Marketing and building Strategic Intelligence Programs for Global Research & Engineering and Marketing. Returning to the US, she led Unilever’s subsidiary Pharmaceutical Nutrition business. At Ingredion, Liz continued to lead and create new programs in Product and Business Management, Industrial Marketing, and Open Innovation. In her latest assignment, she has leveraged her acquired skills and experience to successfully execute numerous external technology partnerships and activate a company-wide, transparent ecosystem for improved collaborations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University and an M.B.A. in Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is a former Board member for the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research and served as a founding member of the International Stevia Council.