Ken Laverdure

Ken Laverdure graduated from the University of Delaware with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. This was followed by a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst under the direction of Prof. Samuel P. Gido of the Polymer Science and Engineering Department. His Thesis was entitled “Mass Transport within Block Copolymers: The effect of Morphology and Grain Structure.” His industrial career began at Dow Chemical in Freeport, TX by elucidating structure-property relationships and designing polymers for the Material Science R&D Group within the former Polyolefins business unit. The next step was at Total Petrochemicals (formerly Fina and Atofina) in Houston, TX. While at Total Application Lab, his research was focused on film, sheet, and foam extrusion.

Ken worked for 11 years at PepsiCo, beginning in the Sustainability and Advance Material Group at Frito-Lay Packaging R&D focusing on the PLA Compostable SunChips bag. This work was recognized in a PepsiCo Chairman’s Award, a DuPont innovation Award, and a “R&D 100 Award” for “One of the 100 Technologically Significant New Products of the Year”. He joined PepsiCo Advanced Research in 2010 and has advanced barrier performance through his research. In 2015, he joined the Materials Film Group within Global Snacks Packaging R&D, where his focus is on improving the quality of film structures and the film packaging supply chain.

After PepsiCo, Ken worked at Beyond Meat employing his industrial knowledge of extrusion to food production. He also brought his knowledge of health and safety processes to improve operations at Beyond Meat’s R&D pilot lab. Ken is currently employed at Estee Lauder company’s helping to improve the sustainability of their packaging.