Kemin Industries Hires New R&D Leader

Kemin Industries, an ingredient manufacturing company that works with private brands, has appointed a new leader for its Research and Development operations.

Dr. Zheng Yang will serve as the director of Research and Development for food technologies in North America. Yang will lead all aspects of research, product development and formulation activities, from conception to commercialization. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Yang as Director of R&D at Kemin Food Technologies,” said Marc Scantlin, president of Kemin Food Technologies – North America. “Trained as a chemist, Dr. Yang has put his scientific knowledge to use in the natural product space solving challenging problems at all stages of product and process development—from discovery to scale up. With over 15 years of experience working for global food and beverage leaders, his expertise will guide innovation and business strategy to accelerate future market growth for Kemin Food Technologies.”

In his new role, Dr. Yang will “establish Kemin’s scientific and strategic basis for research and development in the human food industry,” including product development. Prior to joining Kemin, Dr. Yang served as General Manager for HempRise LLC. In addition, he has led R&D teams within various global food and beverage companies such as Givaudan, The Coca-Cola Company and Cargill.

Dr. Yang earned an executive master of business administration in general management and operation from Quantic School of Business and Technology, a doctoral degree in analytical chemistry from Wake Forest University and a master’s degree in organic synthetic chemistry from Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, China.

Kemin supplies over 500 ingredients for human and animal products and has operations in 90 countries.