Olaf Gruess has over 19 years of experience at General Mills, leading new product development (baked goods, yogurt, cereal bars, shelf stable and frozen meals) and strategic research initiatives (sodium reduction technology, taste perception), as well as roles in Marketing, Connected Innovation and early start-up evaluation. 

Currently he is focusing on identifying technologies externally and developing implementation strategies for those technologies into the broader organization. Gruess has also created and implemented a novel Open Innovation concept by incubating internal technologies together with potential external partners.

Gruess serves as a judge and mentor at MassChallenge, the world’s most start-up friendly accelerator and at the European Food Venture Forum; he was on the Industrial Board of the Integrative Food and Nutrition Center at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Institute for Food Technology (DIL).

Gruess received his Master’s Degree in nutrition and Food Science from the University of Bonn, Germany and the University of Ghent, Belgium, as well as a Ph.D. in Food Science from the University of Bonn, Germany.