Dole Asia Holdings, one of the region’s largest producers and marketers of fresh fruits, has appointed Unilever Foundry’s Barbara Guerpillon to serve as the head of its agrifoodtech arm Dole Ventures.
Global Dole Ventures head Barbara Guerpillon / Photo credit: Dole Asia Holdings
Guerpillon, who is based in Singapore, will be spearheading the company’s business growth through startup-led innovations and the creation of global entrepreneurial networks, according to a statement.
Pier Luigi Sigismondi, president of Dole Packaged Foods, said that the new appointment falls in line with the “Dole Promise” initiative announced in June of this year. This includes making Dole’s business more sustainable, eliminating processed sugar from its products, reducing fruit loss from its farms, and phasing out fossil fuel-based packaging.
“We bring decades of experience in food production, nutritional science, packaging, supply chain logistics, and fast-moving consumer goods, so our ability to fund, run, and evaluate pilots will, I believe, be very attractive to the rising generations of smart thinkers,” said Guerpillon.
The new exec joins Dole Ventures after working as the director of Unilever Foundry Asia, Unilever’s platform for collaborating with startups. There, she also served as the head of Unilever Foundry’s co-working space Level3, where startups work with the consumer goods giant and its other partners.
During her time with Unilever, Guerpillon delivered 120 projects with startups. This has resulted in a total of 25 pilots, including nine product innovations, three retail innovations, and four direct-to-consumer ventures.
Edited by Collin Furtado and Jaclyn Teng
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