An entrepreneur, entertainer, and food scientist: Meet Kristen Yaney
The team at CuliNEX is pleased to introduce its newest team member, Kristen Yaney. Kristen is stepping in as an Manager, Partner Development as Jackie Sarmiento heads off to maternity leave. “I'm very excited to be the bridge to bring CuliNEX’s capabilities to clients, to bring their products to life and bring their goals to life, working with external customers in direct client engagement,” Kristen said. Then with a pause and perfect comic timing, she added, “Essentially… sales.” The friendliness and crisp humor of Kristen’s conversation belie her other vocation—she is also a comedian. Kristen performs comedy and poetry in the Seattle area and hosts a podcast called “Deeply Funny.” But don’t let her humor distract you from her significant background in the food industry.
Kristen is a certified food scientist, with much of her career focused on beverages. Kristen worked for Starbucks, formulating coffee, tea, powdered mixes. She later moved to White Wave Foods, which became Danone. “I did all the benchtop product development for International Delight coffee creamer. I also worked on brands like SToK and Dunkin, Land O'Lakes, and Bailey's,” she said. After that, Kristen worked at a flavor house. “That was a new adventure, working on the B2B side,” said Kristen. She filled a range of roles from beverage innovation project manager to technical sales, calling on a key global account.
“At the core,” said Kristen, “I am deeply invested in the whole human—understanding what's important to the clients and really building that into my goals and making sure that my clients’ goals also become my goals while keeping the bigger ecosystem in mind.” And Kristen certainly understands the bigger ecosystem.
Kristen has been a key part of the many different elements that go into effective launches and reformulations, keeping the larger goal in mind. To develop a great product, she noted, takes more than a focus on flavor. You also have to check in with the technical experts to make sure that it's feasible and consider how it's going to scale to commercialization.
“I worked in quality, regulatory. I've done systems. I know what it’s like being a food scientist and taking something from concept and ideation to launch,” she said. Then with a laugh, she added, “I think sales is one of the last things that I haven't done. So here we are.” She is able to easily draw from her vast experience, and of course her outgoing personality, to serve the needs of those interested in the Clean Label services of CuliNEX.
Oh, and did we mention Kristen is also an entrepreneur? She founded a gift box company called Royal Giftings. “When you can't be with the people that you love but you want to find a way to be there in spirit, you can send a gift box,” she said. In 2019, Kristen created the business with the intention of supporting local artisans and artists—and of course of bringing joy by connecting people on a personal level. In addition to the gift box company, Kristen also does career coaching for women in the food industry and volunteers through IFT (Institute of Food Technologists), and as mentioned earlier, also runs a podcast and performs on stage.
“I think a lot of the people that I'll be calling on are entrepreneurs or have important goals,” she said. “I can understand some of their pain points and what they run up against when they’re creating your own growth.”
With all that Kristen has going on, it’s an honor to have her enormous talents and friendly personality on the team at CuliNEX. Kristen looks forward to using her broad skillset to help you unlock the goals of those in the food industry looking to update their brands with Clean Label reformulations and entrepreneurs looking for help in bringing new healthy and delicious formulations to market.
