Bénédicte Flambard, Department Manager

Bénédicte Flambard: "My job offers diversity."

Bénédicte Flambard came to Chr. Hansen in the year 2000 within the framework of an EU-funded research project to study the effect of the lactic acid bacterium Lactobacillus helveticus on reduction of blood pressure.

My job

My job offers diversity since it combines research, business and development. One thing is to discover and study the health promoting effects of probiotics and bacterial-associated functional foods, another is to make it available to people all over the world.

One of the many challenges that I have faced is to introduce the Chr. Hansen business type to the pharmaceutical companies that specialize in cardiovascular research. I had to persuade experts who only believed in drugs that food could actually play a major role in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

My responsibilities

As head of the department, I am in charge of Chr. Hansen's research activities within the field of Health Functionality. This entails cooperating globally with experts - not only within Chr. Hansen but also with some of the most respected research institutions and universities around the world.

My motivation

I really enjoy all aspects of my job - especially being the interface between research and business. Chr. Hansen allows its employees to perform a fundamental type of research, and the high-quality research that is conducted allows us to be a preferential partner on the business and research side of the organization.

Lastly, I like my job because it gives me the opportunity for personal development with many different challenges to face.