Marin Garland is Research and Development Director UK/IE for Kersia Group. In our ‘Meet The Team’ blog he explains his newly created role and the work he carries out.
How long have you been in your current role?
I’ve been in this role for a very busy 14 weeks. Following on from the integration of Holchem into the Kersia Group this is a newly created role that aims to bring together our team’s expertise in innovating across all the farm and food sectors within the UK.
What was your career path that led you to this role?
I am a pharmacist by profession and completed a PhD in Drug Delivery and Pharmaceutics at the School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast. Since then, I have spent the last ten years working as Technical Director at Kilco, with varying responsibilities covering R&D and the establishment of our Functional Chemicals Research Centre, Quality Control, Regulatory Affairs, Operations, and ensuring a successful integration of Kilco into the Kersia Group over the last two years.
What responsibilities does your role include?
My job is to lead the UK/IE R&D department, comprising teams based in Bury, Lockerbie and Belfast. It focuses on maintaining our position as a centre of excellence in innovation, product development and support throughout the farm to fork sectors.
What’s your favourite part of the job?
It’s definitely the variety – no two days are the same. It’s also afforded me lots of opportunities and the chance to meet lots of different people both internally and externally.
What does a typical day look like?
In these atypical times, I think like most others at the moment, it involves a lot of virtual interaction with my colleagues across the UK, Ireland and internationally. The great thing about my role, and innovation within the Kersia Group, is the wide diversity of projects I get exposed to. This can mean balancing time throughout the day dealing with technical support queries, working with our university partners, refining formulations and developments, assisting the registration of our products across the world, and focusing on the amalgamation of Holchem and Kilco into the Group.
What would your dream job be?
That’s an easy one - To be the manager that can finally succeed in replacing Sir Alex Ferguson’s footsteps at Manchester United…Maybe now I will be frequenting Bury more often, I could be one step closer to getting spotted!
