Mattson Chairman Doubles Up for C-Suite AI Role

Silicon Valley-based food and beverage innovation firm Mattson has appointed its Board Chairman Steve Gundrum as its first Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer.

Founded in 1977, Mattson helps food and beverage clients develop new products and optimise them for taste, nutrition, sustainability, profitability and customer experience. Its front-end innovation practice includes strategists, analysts, food scientists, scale-up specialists, culinary experts and professional chefs. The company offers proprietary ideation methods ProtoThink AI and Food Studio AI, and in April announced the acquisition of Chicago-based Hyde Park Group Food Innovation (HPG) - giving it its first location outside the Bay Area of San Francisco.

Mattson's AI taps a wide range of sources including blogs, social media, scientific papers and recipes, to provide rapid intelligence on consumer needs and perceptions. Gundrum (pictured) has been leading the development of new tech-and-trend-driven innovation services at Mattson for 36 years, including flagship ideation services ProtoThink AI and Food Studio Ideation. He comments: 'The arrival of AI changes everything. It will be used to enhance our holistic innovation approach, from strategy and insights to ideation, concept development, product development and commercialization'.

CTO Justin Shimek adds: 'It's not unusual for us to generate 100 fully formed concepts each with a real-food example, in a day. With this technology as our thought partner, we've upped the game of ideation significantly'.

Web site: www.mattsonco.com .