Clarkson University alumna Jean Spence ’79 of Marco Island, Fla., has been reelected to Clarkson’s Board of Trustees. She will serve as a member of the Audit and Governance committees.
Spence previously served as a Clarkson trustee from 2006 to 2019, serving as chair from 2015 to 2019. She was an active member of the Alumni Association executive board prior to beginning her service as a trustee, and has been recognized with the University’s highest alumni honor, the Golden Knight Award.
She is the retired executive vice president of research development & quality for Mondelēz International Inc. and currently consults for several organizations as president of JES Consulting, LLC.
At Mondelēz International, Spence was responsible for all product and packaging development, research, nutrition, quality, food safety and scientific affairs worldwide. Prior to that, she was the executive vice president of global technology & quality at Kraft Foods, Inc. before it separated part of its business to create Mondelēz International in 2012.
Spence joined Kraft in 1981 as a research engineer for Maxwell House coffee research and development. She held a variety of management positions in research and development before being named quality assurance director in 1993. She became vice president of technology in 1996 and vice president, worldwide quality and scientific relations in 1990. In 2001, she was appointed senior vice president of worldwide quality, scientific affairs and compliance for Kraft Foods North America. She was appointed executive vice president of research, development and quality in 2004. Spence holds three U.S. and worldwide patents for her development work at Kraft Foods and is a certified food scientist (CFS) of the Institute of Food Technologists.
She serves on the board of directors of TreeHouse Foods and is an advisor to the Agri-Food Tech Fund of Praesidium SGR, a European private investment office.
Spence received her bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from Clarkson and a master of engineering degree in chemical engineering from Manhattan College.
She and her husband, Bob Spence ’79 are the parents of two adult children.
https://www.clarkson.edu/news/clarkson-university-alumna-jean-spence-79-reelected-board-trustees