XCELIS® CHAMPION: EDWIN MOORTHAMER, TECHNICAL SERVICE MANAGER – EMEA

A IFF employee since 2017, Edwin Moorthamer is a relative newcomer to the company—but he's a grain processing industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience, including R&D, product development, production, and process optimization.

Now, as a technical service manager based in the Netherlands, he draws on all those diverse skills to be an effective partner to ethanol producers across the EMEA region.

"One of the best parts of joining IFF is working with our customers as a team, putting together everything we need to create the right solution for them," Edwin says. "That can range from enzyme application to planned trials to the overall optimization of the plant."

But it's not just the opportunity to share his own expert knowledge—and IFF's resources—that he finds most satisfying. It's the chance to learn from his customers, too.

"Many of our customers are very open with me, very willing to share information about their plant, their processes, and their challenges (all strictly confidential)," he explains. "And that's when I feel I can really make a difference for them—because this deeper understanding of the customer's needs, combined with the right connections within IFF, results in much better-quality solutions that will help move them to a higher level."

This collaborative style helped lead to a creative solution for a customer struggling to make their highly energy-efficient process more cost-efficient. Edwin worked closely with them and with other IFF scientists to conduct a root cause analysis of the issue and run a trial with a new alpha amylase enzyme. The next step will be to maximize process performance by optimizing process parameters to the new product and achieve the cost savings they're looking for—and all signs now point to success.

Looking to the future, Edwin sees more challenges ahead. And he sees himself as a true champion for his customers, working to solve those challenges with them.

"For me, that means that customers get all the support they need, and they know that we are really listening to them," he says. "Together, we are anticipating potential issues and helping address them before they impact their business."