Dr. Austin Kozman is a Director at PepsiCo working in the External Innovation and Alliance Management team. The External Innovation (XI) team is charged with identifying, researching, and developing emerging novel technologies in both food and beverage processing and packaging. The ultimate goal of PepsiCo XI is to locate “development ready” technologies and business propositions that are robust enough to perform successfully at a pilot scale where product development teams can explore potential applications that can impact our portfolio of beverages (Pepsi, Tropicana, Gatorade, etc.) and/or snacks & foods (Lays, Doritos, Quaker, etc.; therefore enabling complete adoption and integration into PepsiCo.  XI is also interested in areas external to processing and packaging that influence our core business, such as ingredients, sensors, analytical equipment, point of sale equipment, distribution/fleet, etc.

Prior to joining PepsiCo in November 2009, Austin was the manager of the Thermal Systems and Research and Development Divisions at Stewart Systems (located in Plano, Texas). There he performed engineering design coupled with research and development of conveyorized direct fired combustion ovens (12 million BTU/hr). This work incorporated finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics thermal modeling, analytical calculations, and empirical experimental studies to optimize the combustion and bake efficiencies of the ovens. Austin has consistently demonstrated competencies in the areas of thermal analysis and mechanical design. During his tenure at Stewart Systems, he consistently made major advancements in the baking industry and is well recognized as an expert on thermal analysis, heat transfer, and oven design and optimization. Before joining Stewart Systems in 2002, Austin was a member of the Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies and has worked as a thermal engineer for over 20 years.

Austin received his B.S.M.E. from the University of Texas at Austin and his Masters of Engineering and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. Austin has three issued US patents and six currently pending (3 issued UK patents). In 1999 Austin was selected as the Young Engineer of the Year by the North Texas Electronic Packaging Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). In 2010, Austin was elevated to Fellow Status in ASME. Austin is a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas.