Who is Who with Tiphaine Paulhiac: Project Manager

Interviewer: Hello Tiphaine, thanks for taking a little break to speak about your experience at Ambrosus.

Tiphaine (Project Manager): It’s no problem at all.

Interviewer: To start, could you maybe speak a little bit about your background and previous interests before your professional career?

Tiphaine: Sure. So I am from Switzerland, and my background is mostly focused on food, my passion. By training I am a material engineer, so to be more specific I focus on the technical aspects of food. Since I was young I have always had this interest in food — how and what it is made of and how it can directly affect your overall health and the way you feel. I also have done a lot of home cooking as well as clean cooking — so a more natural, organic, fair trade type of focus on foods. The industry as a whole is really quite diverse and I have been more than happy concentrating my interests there.

Interviewer: More precisely, where did you train as a material engineer?

Tiphaine: I did my bachelor and master in Material Engineering at EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) here in Switzerland. I also had the chance to do my exchange year at Imperial College London.

The reason why I did material engineering was because it was a broad discipline and I was generally interested in a lot of different areas. In this way I got a chance to work with different profiles — and overall saw a larger variety of scientific research in different areas like biomaterials, construction, food, wood engineering and much more.

Interviewer: And before you discovered Ambrosus, did you have any other major engagements with the food industry?

Tiphaine: Yes, so during my Master I was really focused on courses and internships in food applications as much as possible. I did my master thesis at Firmenich, in the department of encapsulation for aromas and perfumes. After I graduated I went to Chile for one year and got the chance to work as an engineer at a Research and Development (R&D) Institute focused on the Environment and Energy. Then I came back to Switzerland and worked for about a year and a half as a project Engineer at EPFL on a partnership program with Nestle. Basically I did a very specialised study on the resistance of chocolate amidst various conditions.

At that point when my contract with the lab ended, I started to look around for more opportunities and found out about the Food and Nutrition Center at EPFL that was originally founded by Stefan (Dr. Stefan Meyer — Chief Technology Officer). I was quite interested in what I had seen so I made an appointment to meet with Stefan.

Interviewer: And I am guessing based on your background interest with food that it was a good fit?

Tiphaine: Yes, you could say that. I met with him and we started discussing the idea behind the lab, and very quickly after we started speaking he decided to hire me. So just like that I was hired and brought onboard at the center and the lab.

Interviewer: Once at the center, what was your focus area and how did Ambrosus eventually become involved?

Tiphaine: I was splitting my time between Ambrosus and the Food and Nutrition Center at EPFL for the first 6 months. Thanks to the Center, I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people from Europe working on food and associated research, especially within EIT Food. With time, Ambrosus and the lab started to get more and more intense, with a complete team and important projects to develop.

Interviewer: Has your role at Ambrosus changed much over time? I imagine with a specialized background in Food Science you really can do a lot with what Ambrosus is offering.

Tiphaine: Yes, so originally I did a decent amount of patent research and spent a lot of time scouting directions to develop some of the ideas behind the Innovation Laboratory (InnoLab). Then after that initial research phase, I did a lot of different projects focusing more specifically on supply chains. To be honest I can’t even remember all of them because there were quite a few. During this second phase of more ‘hands-on’ engagement, I was really able to merge my background with the whole area of supply chain management, and got to learn more about how things went during meetings with different clients, and planning sessions at the Lab.

Interviewer: And now you are a Solutions Architect?

Tiphaine: Exactly. I like to keep things practical. I was never really a fan of hearing about only the idea of tracing different products throughout the supply chain. Rather I wanted to deal with the concrete questions and figure out exactly how to make these ideas into a reality. So for example, for every client we have, we need to find out how we can build a solution for them, when to do it, who we are engaging with, etc. I think sometimes this can be a bit exhausting — fine tuning every single little detail of the solution — but someone has to do it, and I especially like to put my hands into the project.

More generally, as a solutions architect, I am dividing my time with client companies and the other lead engineers of the lab. When the business developers (Biz-Dev’s) find a client that is interested in using an Ambrosus solution, my job is to understand how to create the solution the client wants, and then build that solution from scratch. So I speak with the sales manager, travel very frequently to fully understand the topic, and then get brilliant extra help from all the other technical people in the lab: with all of their knowledge and expertise in the field they have a lot of really quality insights.

Interviewer: How would you say the communication with your team at the InnoLab is?

Tiphaine: To be honest I think everyone at the lab is really pleased with the fact that we all get along really well. We can communicate pretty easily and quickly, and so we learn a lot from each other just in the day to day. We have similar backgrounds so it is nice to build relationships and get to know the styles of each other. Even if it is not our job directly, we take time to brainstorm together and learn the process together. The combination of our different expertise makes our strength. We are truly working as a team.

And I should also add that Stefan is leading us very well. He gives us space and liberty to think outside the box. At the same time, he really pushes us in the direction that he wants and he believes is the most important and useful for the future industries, as he knows the topic perfectly well. Also, he pushed me and saw where I was good at and what I liked and now I am doing exactly that. It is very nice and important for me to work for someone who works and builds a company with passion.

Interviewer: Now from what I have heard, it is safe to say that you are really fully immersed in Ambrosus. What else do you have time for or what do you try to fill your time with?

Tiphaine: Yes you could say I am. I guess that is the startup life. I set the goal of swimming more and staying more active. I also cook a lot more so I am trying to keep doing this at night. I think in September my objective will be to start synchronized swimming once more, now that I have found a new club. Overall I like to try new things, and genuinely enjoy relaxing with more active and artistic activities.

Interviewer: Alright, so for a final question: you have been with Ambrosus from the very beginning. Where do you see Ambrosus going in the future?

Tiphaine: Well I can only speak from my perspective and the projects that I have been working on which most of them have to do with track and trace in food. I can say that the solution that is being built now, can be built for many other products. And that the products we input can be easily changed for other ones. So the scope of what we have has a very large amount of future potential. Of course some fine-tuning are necessary but the basics are the same.

In terms of the InnoLab, we are now focusing on steering it more in the direction of innovative and specialized research, and building intellectual property (IP). Eventually, this will involve building partnerships with more universities and research centers, but that is a long term process that will take time.

Overall, I think the areas that Ambrosus is building solutions for are really interesting fields because there is a lot of things to be done: In the supply chain in general nothing has really evolved. Looking ahead I can say that there is a lot of opportunity, and that the main question is how quickly things will evolve rather than if they will. In this sense the dynamic and proactive attitude that Ambrosus takes, is really exciting.

Interviewer: Thanks Tiphaine.

Tiphaine: Thanks, glad I could help.