Dr. Ralf Zink (DMK, Head of R&D)

Studies in Biology, Food Microbiology and Biotechnology (Diploma, Germany)

Ph.D. in Molecular Food Microbiology (Germany): Dairy and Dairy pathogens

Postdoctoral Associate: Southeast Dairy Research Center and Department of Food Science (NCSU, Raleigh, USA)  

Group-Leader in Food Microbiology (responsible for dairy, fermented dairy, cheese, probiotics and the bacterial culture collection for research and industrial purposes) at the Nestle-Research-Center (Lausanne, Switzerland)

Product-Area-Coordinator for chilled and shelf-stable dairy (Interface between R&D and the respective dairy business-unit) at the Nestle-Research-Center (Lausanne, Switzerland)

Global R&D and Technical Director within the BU Nutrition & Health for the special chemical company Cognis (Germany):  BU-related R&D and regulatory for dairy-, food- and beverage-industry, R&D-collaborations with FMCG-partners, strategic BU-acquisitions, JV and Open-Innovation

Own company in the area of R&D, ingredients and strategy-consulting

Since 2011 Head of R&D at DMK (Germany), reporting directly to the CEO. Responsibilities cover operational and strategic R&D for dairy, cheese, milk-powders and ingredients as well as process- and packaging development. For one year in parallel the Head of Innovation-Management. Furthermore, member of the company′s Innovation-Core-Team (ICT).