Pallavi
Head of Nestlé UK Quality Assurance Laboratory, Nestlé UK
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My first contact with Nestlé UK came via sponsorship for my PhD. I was keen to develop my scientific knowledge while applying it to real industry issues. Spending three years working with the R&D community highlighted both Nestlé's commitment to fundamental science and showed me how diverse the food industry could be. My peers came from practically every scientific/engineering discipline.
I joined the Nestlé Research Centre (Switzerland) as a Research Scientist and was involved in projects covering, among others, beverages, confectionery and culinary products. Aside from the scientific skills, I received training in project management, finance and the 'soft' skills that are essential when working with diverse teams. Then I moved to our ice-cream product technology centre in France and was given the wonderful (there was lots of tasting involved!) and challenging (12-hour days) role of Quality Specialist in a team that worked on improvement projects with factories worldwide.
I travelled across Europe, Asia and the Americas to ensure that our quality systems were in place and to transfer experiences from one market to another. During those 18 months, I came to understand the global reach of Nestlé and the corresponding international opportunities which exist to progress your career.
When I returned to the UK, I was keen to better understand quality management at a market level. Now my day-to-day role includes helping our factories release their products by providing reliable testing results. I ensure that our third-party partners work to the same stringent quality standards as our own. I also coach and develop others towards becoming excellent quality managers of the future.
Pallavi graduated from The University of Leeds with Ph.D. Colour & Polymer Chemistry.
