Mentor profiles
Please click on their name to find out more about each mentor
Having studied food science and consumer product management at Robert Gordon University, Paul’s love of food grew as he worked as a chef throughout his studies. From here, he joined Macintosh of Dyce working on the development of ready meals, pies and sausages before moving to Fisher Foods which is now part of Young’s. He then returned to the world of ready meals, working for SMARTT, before joining food ingredients manufacturer Macphie in 2003.
Paul initially worked as a development technologist, working on customised briefs for Macphie’s customer base before moving to the branded department working on NPD, raw materials and packaging. He is now in the role of open innovation manager, covering NPD, developments in packaging and ingredients as well as investigating forward technologies and processes for the business.
Mariella Barra CSci FIFST has been working in the food industry for almost 20 years, for the most part in product and process development roles. She is a chemist by background, holding a BSc and MSc in Chemistry and has recently obtained a BEng in Chemical Engineering. She has experience in the chilled, ambient and frozen sectors. She spent four years in Nestlé Italy working on frozen baked products - both new product development and process optimisation, then moved to the UK and spend a period in chilled ready meals product and process development. She then moved to the ambient sector and worked for six years in Premier Foods, progressing to process development manager for Research and Development (R&D).
Currently, she is working as Sustainability Manager for Macphie ltd. She is passionate about bringing more process expertise to R&D and bridging the disconnect between Operations (OPS) and R&D. Her current interests are new process technologies, thermal process preservation, carbon emissions reduction and waste processing and valorisation. She is a fellow of IFST and a Chartered Scientist.
George joined Macphie in 2022, bringing with him over 20 years of food industry experience. He started his career with Scotbeef as product development technologist, working on added-value raw beef, lamb and pork products for Marks & Spencer and Co-op. From here he moved to McCormick Europe or a number of years, developing products for brands including McDonalds, Nando’s and KFC.
He later went on to work for gluten-free bakery brand Genius before taking on further senior roles in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
George now heads up Macphie’s team of product technologists, covering a broad portfolio of UHT, ready-to-eat and powder products.
Victoria joined Macphie in 2022 from Police Scotland where she worked in the control room and as custody sergeant. Prior to this, Victoria worked in the oil & gas industry and retail, leading large shop-floor teams.
Victoria now puts her experience of working with people and working in high-pressure environments to good practise in her role as employee experience advisor, supporting everything from recruitment and talent management to dealing with grievances and chairing employee forums.
Jamie Initially studied hospitality and went on to become a chef working his way through fine dining and rosette level kitchens. It was here his passion for food intensified leading him to Abertay University to pursue a degree in Food and Consumer Science.
During his time at university, he knew food development was the route he wanted his career to take and it did just that when he was awarded the Macphie Scholarship in 2022.
This gave him the chance him to spend 3 months working in the product development department at the Glenbervie site. An eye opening experience. This ultimately led him to where he is today, working as a food product designer. Initially working alongside the innovation manager, Jamie has since moved into the design team where he works on customized and branded projects.
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Lydia has an MSc in Chemistry from Robert Gordon University and worked in the Energy sector as a Laboratory Chemist before transitioning to the Bakery industry. She gained experience working in small artisanal bakeries in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, focussing on production of sourdough, patisserie and viennoiserie.
She joined MacPhie in May 2023 as Bakery Technologist and utilises her background in chemistry and passion for quality baking to support development of new and existing products for major retailers and the MacPhie brand. As a product developer, she enjoys the challenge of problem solving, formulating and adapting recipes and processes to achieve optimal product quality.
Susie has a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a wide 30-year experience in the Food Industry, with expertise in the ice cream, tea and gluten-free and baking industries.
Susie has a broad knowledge of R&D spanning science, innovation, nutrition and gut health and is passionate about developing & landing technologies to enhance the quality, cost and nutrition of branded and retailer food products. Skilled in ingredients & formulation, food processing, consumer insight and fast-moving consumer goods, her career has spanned many food categories. She has used this experience to build and lead Product Development teams around the world.
Susie is currently the Head of Innovation at Macphie developing our new ingredient, packaging and process technologies.