T. Edwin Freeman, Phd Email & Phone Number

Greater Chicago Area

Serve as the global custodian of packaging material expertise and provide authoritative technical advice and expertise to senior management regarding intentional innovation, in alignment with the business strategies.Identify, champion, and adapt new technologies, tools, and formulas; and help develop best practices in innovation and technology throughout Research and Development.Lead the development of early stage technologies for sustainable food packaging materials, with special focus on paper-based materials and bio-based and biodegradable coatings and testing and regulatory compliance assessment of food contact materials.Build & proactively maintain a broad network (internal and external) to identify the most important problems to solve or opportunities to create, and to ensure adoption of ideas.Coach & mentor technical Associates and sponsor the development of an effective long-term succession pipeline for critical technical roles in packaging development globally.

Greater Chicago Area

Cultivate and maintain strategic relationships with external networks to proactively identify opportunities to discover, develop and deliver solutions to address the company’s global packaging sustainability program and strategy. Guide executives and engineers in resolving complex issues in packaging sustainability based on existing solutions and best practices. Actively mentor associates and develop core functional competencies in packaging sustainability, and collaborate with multi-disciplinary cross-functional innovation teams to ensure successful program launch.

Chicago, Il

Develop and implement strategic initiatives to embed packaging sustainability globally across Mars Wrigley Confectionery. Lead global packaging materials science team, develop key projects, set strategic direction and build capabilities in life cycle thinking and other scientific principles to meet Mars sustainable packaging goals. Manage critical issues especially relating to flexible plastics packaging end-of-life and identify opportunities to develop and implement new/emerging technology and material options that address these issues. Drive life cycle assessment of the company's confectionery packaging portfolio and develop approaches and strategies to prevent litter and reduce the packaging environmental footprint. Provide strategic and functional leadership for developing innovative premium packaging platforms that deliver top-line business value.  Develop and maintain external engagements with trade associations and sustainability-related organizations, to leverage current trends in sustainable packaging material and technologies.

Atlanta, Ga

Lead global sustainable packaging community, set strategic direction and build capabilities to drive life cycle assessment of the company's beverage packaging and develop approaches and strategies for reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) impact from packaging.Selected Accomplishments ♦ Expanded the company’s global supply base of recycled PET for bottle-to-bottle application by streamlining approval process, rationalizing and modernizing specifications, building capabilities globally, and developing a decentralized governance structure. ♦ Led scouting initiatives for identifying disruptive emerging technologies and worked with partners to develop potential business opportunities for improving package life cycle and reducing environmental impact. ♦ Influenced key internal and external stakeholders in critical business decision-making around specifications and compliance in assessment of new technologies and construction of new plants for PET recycling. ♦ Provided leadership in governance and stewardship for food contact materials in collaboration with various technical functions including Procurement, Regulatory, Quality & Environmental.

Atlanta, Ga

Provided strategic and functional leadership for developing innovative packaging platforms that deliver top-line business value. Selected Accomplishments ♦ Managed material development cycle from ideation, prototyping and pilot through commercial rollout to enable packaging of company beverage products on in-home beverage dispensing platform. ♦ Developed global internal processes quality metrics and testing standards for meeting compliance of quality targets for recycled PET materials for packaging application. ♦ Developed and commercialized renewably sourced raw materials for packaging application. ♦ Influenced key internal and external stakeholders in critical business decision making around specifications and compliance in the assessment of new technologies.

Atlanta, Ga

Managed package development cycle from consumer and customer insights through product ideation, design, prototyping, pilot and commercial rollout.Selected Accomplishments ♦ Led cross functional team to develop the packaging system to enable micro-dosing technology for the Coca-Cola Freestyle™ beverage dispenser which has revolutionized the foodservice by enabling customization of beverage choice by consumers. ♦ Develop and manage relationships with multiple external partners and monitor market trends to identify opportunities for leveraging emerging technologies. ♦ Led supplier selection and managed relationships for Coca-Cola Freestyle™ packaging resulting in installation of $20 M packaging manufacturing infrastructure ♦ Developed and commercialized sustainable multi-layer materials and coating technologies for high gas barrier performance, resulting in product shelf life extension by more than 100% improvement. ♦ Managed the process for evaluation of technical External Idea Submissions to The Coca-Cola Company.

Rochester, Ny

Managed research projects on the development of polymeric materials and coating formulations for fabrication of components for high speed digital printing applications. Selected Accomplishments ♦ Developed proprietary material formulations and processes for fabrication and characterization of image transfer components with surface properties compatible with phase change to enable solid ink jet. ♦ Managed project teams in development of new materials and technologies resulting in the improvement of print quality for a variety of printing systems. ♦ Developed hybrid (organic/inorganic) elastomeric coatings and adhesive formulations for flexible and rigid substrates (intermediate transfer belts and fusers) to enable digital image transfer. ♦ Developed charge transport materials and coating formulations for application in multi-layered organic photoreceptors to enable high speed printing and copying.

Greater Pittsburgh Area

♦ Development and formulation of resins and coatings for ophthalmic lens application

Phd, Polymer Science

Msc, Chemistry

Bsc, Chemistry