Friday, October 29, 2021

1.Can you tell us about your work experience at Mondelēz International?

I joined MDLZ in 2001 as an intern for our coffee business and was subsequently offered a permanent role in our RDQ department. Since then, I held several roles within RDQ and changed focus from coffee to chocolate. I now lead the Personalization and Customization platform team, looking into 21st century premium gifting.  Within this platform the most noteworthy launch is that of the Cadbury Dairy Milk 3D printer in Australia – which was a pop up for 3.5 weeks.   

2.What are the positive challenges your job presents? 

Exciting consumers with chocolate offerings beyond what they have seen before and providing them with experiences that further connects them with our brand, but also allows them to connect with their friends and family as well.  We are also working in an agile manner - whilst the core team itself is a small one, we consider ourselves as part of a bigger team made up of multiple other groups with the same goal.  This allows broader internal collaboration and sparking of new ideas as well as team development – developing a mix of people at different stages in their career and seeing them achieve and develop is always extremely rewarding.

3.What is the most exciting project that you have worked on?

Launching 3D printing in Australia was a career highlight and probably the most glamorous, challenging but rewarding project I’ve completed. For 3D printing this was not only the first time we were shared our innovation publicly but also the first time we were testing technology that was providing the consumer something new, exciting, and experiential.  In addition, this was the first technology I had launched that was consumer facing. 

4.How have you developed your career during your time with us?

All the opportunities I have had within MDLZ have been driven by my own proactivity and hard work. I am particularly proud of an opportunity that I was able to secure in the USA – this involved reaching out for opportunities and working to find something possible. It was an amazing opportunity to develop on both a personal and professional level. On top of that, I’d say people development has always been a passion of mine, and I’ve always done related activities throughout my career – e.g. mentoring and coaching – to continuously develop this skill.

5.Give us an example of how stepped outside of your comfort zone in your role?

My first role in Chocolate was a step out of my comfort zone.  I had only been in role 1 week before I was sent on a large trial.  At this point I knew nothing about chocolate, except for basic things I had read in literature about understanding what tempering means etc. Not only was it on chocolate but it was also looking at fat based and water-based fillings and chocolates with inclusions.  The process was completely new.  The only thing I could take with me was that I had conducted many trials before and therefore would be applying my coffee experience as much as possible. Other than that, I’d say New York was a step outside of my comfort zone, I had never lived abroad on my own before.  I thought moving to the USA would be simple, but even something as simple as getting a bank account, doing grocery shopping was different.

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