Transforming Food Innovation through Strategic Execution

Jenny Diehl is a leader in applied food innovation. Before joining Cargill, she led product development at Sam’s Club, Schwan’s and Allens Inc., gaining hands-on experience in frozen, dry grocery and private label. That cross-category depth shapes how she works today, guiding global teams in edible oils and food service to turn complex challenges into scalable, real-world solutions. Her focus is always the same: connect technical precision with commercial impact.

Building Innovation that Works

At Cargill, Diehl is a driving force behind practical, scalable and commercially grounded products. Her work touches every part of the development chain, from concept to commercialization, with a consistent focus on how ingredients, formulations and processes perform in the real world. She leads with questions rooted in use: Does it meet the brief? Can it scale? Will it hold up under pressure—thermal, sensory, operational?

“Diehl leads innovation by staying close to real-world challenges. For her, the value of an idea lies not in how new it is, but in how well it works across the line, the kitchen, and the customer”

Whether supporting high-volume quick-serve brands or designing better-for-you alternatives in bakery and snacks, Diehl brings a clear-headed approach to what innovation needs to achieve. Her focus isn’t novelty—it’s durable results. That approach has helped her teams bring new products and working methods: tighter alignment between sites, faster reformulation cycles and stronger integration with commercial partners.

Connecting Product Vision with Operational Reality

Diehl’s background spans the technical depth of formulation science and the business fluency of category leadership. Before joining Cargill, she played key roles in R&D and product development at Sam’s Club, Schwan’s and Allens Inc., launching dozens of SKUs across frozen, dry grocery and value-added vegetables. At each stage, she built a reputation for clarity, setting standards, driving decisions and making complexity actionable.

Her team-building mindset is just as strong as her technical foundation. Diehl develops talent pipelines and mentoring frameworks that quickly bring new food scientists up to speed, ensuring the future of innovation is equipped to move as fast as the market does.

Where Innovation Meets Execution

Diehl approaches innovation as both a discipline and a responsibility. At Cargill’s newly transformed Innovation Center in Singapore—and in kitchens and labs worldwide—she’s helped build systems that let foodservice and manufacturing client’s prototype, refine and commercialize faster. And always, with the same goal: to make what’s next better than what came before. For Diehl, innovation is never just an idea.

It’s what happens when insight meets execution and when the people closest to the work are trusted to shape the outcome. In a global industry where success is measured in taste, time and trust, she’s helping build what lasts.