IFF Names Chief R&D and Sustainability Officer: 4 Things to Know

IFF has promoted VP Casper Vroemen (pictured, above) to succeed Gregory Yep as chief R&D and sustainability officer, effective September 1, 2023. Yep resigned to pursue a new opportunity at another organization.

Here are four things to know about Vroemen and IFF's sustainability strategy.

1. Business Focus and Scale: IFF, based in New York, is a chemical company focused on food and beverage ingredients, fragrance ingredients and cosmetics. The company has roughly 24,000 employees across 65 countries. Moreover, IFF has more than 110 manufacturing facilities and 100 R&D centers that serve roughly 33,000 customers worldwide.

2. Sustainability Goals: IFF is striving to achieve Net Zero GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions by 2040 and to be climate positive by 2050. The effort includes goals to reduce emissions across operations by 50% below 2021 levels; verify zero waste to landfill for all major manufacturing facilities; and achieve zero deforestation for strategic raw material supply chains, beginning with palm, soy and wood.

3. Casper Vroemen's Priorities and Background: Vroemen will will be based in Union Beach, New Jersey, and will become part of IFF’s executive leadership team. He will "further IFF’s efforts in innovation, leading the company’s global R&D strategy, technological development, innovation pipeline and external collaborations," the company said.

Vroemen joined the Company in 2004 as a scientist and project leader. Over the past two decades, IFF said, Vroemen "has assumed roles of increasing responsibility in research and development in Europe and the U.S., and has played a major role in establishing IFF as a bioscience powerhouse. During his tenure, he oversaw the company’s leading position in the protein engineering of industrial enzymes, contributed to the commercialization of multiple new technological advancements, and is a prolific inventor named on many patents."

Vroemen holds a Master’s of Science in Molecular Life Sciences and a doctorate in Molecular Biology, both from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

4. Perspectives about the Executive Transition: In a prepared statement about Vroemen succeeding Yep, IFF CEO Frank Clyburn said: “Through Greg’s leadership, we have established IFF as the go-to partner for science-backed solutions for the health, fragrance, nutrition and home and personal care markets. We thank Greg for his many contributions, and wish him well in his future endeavors. We have a strong successor in Casper, who will continue to advance our innovation pipeline and sustainability efforts.”

IFF Sustainability Officer: Why Technology Partners Should Care

By 2027, 25% of Global 2000 companies will have assigned a chief sustainability officer (CSO) responsible for meeting their organization’s ESG goals and making ESG-related IT purchasing decisions, according to IDC.

Technology partners need to extend their sales, marketing, engagement and support strategies to successfully fulfill those CSO needs, Sustainable Tech Partner believes.