Kemin Industries, a global ingredient manufacturer, recently added three new members to its technical services team for Kemin Food Technologies – North America. Rebecca Furbeck, Lizzy Flanagen, and Dan Ryan now serve as liaisons between the business unit’s customers, laboratories, and sales teams, aiming to ensure seamless communication to help customers successfully and effectively implement products. 

Furbeck joins Kemin Food Technologies – North America as technical services manager for proteins, supporting customers with ingredient performance, product development, and process troubleshooting. Flanagen is also supporting Kemin Food Technologies – North America’s protein business as a technical services associate, assisting customers with plant trials, application testing, and project tracking. Ryan returns to Kemin as a technical services associate focused on antioxidants and helping manage applications in snacks, sauces, dressings, fats, oils, beverages, and fried foods.

“Rebecca, Dan, and Lizzy are tremendous assets to the Kemin team of technical experts, and we are excited about what this highly skilled and deeply knowledgeable group will accomplish,” says Daniel Pompeu, sales director, Kemin Food Technologies – North America. “As we continue to strengthen our technical capabilities, these new team members share diverse industry expertise and a commitment to improving life by providing the highest-quality food products, formulated with scientifically proven ingredients. Their experience and dedication will help drive innovation and ensure we continue delivering best-in-class solutions and support to our customers.”

Rebecca Furbeck, Ph.D., reportedly brings a wealth of expertise at the intersection of meat science, food microbiology, and processing technologies to her role at Kemin, in which she will help understand the difficulties the protein-rich food industry is currently facing and develop test protocols to assess how to best address those challenges.

Dr. Furbeck came to Kemin from GEA Group, where she served as test center supervisor. Prior to that, she worked at Kerry as an R&D Scientist in antimicrobial applications for bakery products, meats, and beverages. She received a bachelor’s degree in food science from Iowa State University and a doctorate in animal science from the University of Nebraska, where she utilized microbial sequencing methods to identify the spoilage organisms present in processed poultry and beef through her dissertation.

With her extensive knowledge and hands-on experience in the meat industry, Flanagen is well positioned to foster relationships at the plant level and ensure the highest optimization of Kemin ingredients. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in animal science from Colorado State University, where she was deeply involved in the meat laboratory. Her graduate research focused on food safety and pathogen detection at the plant level, and she gained extensive exposure to beef production processes, experiencing both the challenges and successes of the industry.

In his new role, Ryan will channel his passion for antioxidant and antimicrobial solutions to help customers solve oxidation, bacterial contamination, and mold-related challenges. He started his career at Corteva Agriscience, where he focused on plant genetics, protein purification, and soybean transformation. Since joining Kemin in 2019 as a food microbiologist, Ryan's focus has shifted to food safety and preservation. In 2022, Dan expanded his expertise as a product manager for Kemin Food Technologies – Asia. Based in Singapore, he managed customer-facing roles and provided a technical voice on sales calls to support antimicrobial and antioxidant projects. Dan graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in biology. 

Related: Kemin publishes report on consumer grocery behaviors