Blount Promotes Bigelow to Chief Innovation Officer

Blount Fine Foods has promoted William Bigelow to chief innovation officer, which company officials say demonstrates Blount’s long-standing strategy of investing to develop leaders from within.

In his expanded role, Bigelow will serve the customer and sales team by translating national and global trends and consumer insights into opportunities to create valuable new products. In addition to product-based research, Bigelow will continue to have responsibilities in business development, pricing, forecasting and customer service, and will take on the additional responsibilities of packaging innovation and leading a future acquisition search to include relevant and opportunistic products, geographies and brands.

Since joining Blount's research and development department in 2002, Bigelow has helped launch more than 1,000 new or improved products. In recent years, his innovations have allowed for expansion into new market segments and geographies.

“William has been a valued executive in this company for several years,” said Bob Sewall, EVP of sales and marketing for Blount, in a statement. “He has an excellent rapport with our customers, who know him well, trust his insights and look to him for innovative thinking.”

“As consumer behaviors, patterns and preferences continue to evolve, there is an opportunity for companies like Blount to expand the focus of innovation beyond the culinary trends of taste, texture, flavor and nutrition, and into facets of the eating experience like packaging, preparation and eating occasions,” said Bigelow. “These kinds of challenges are the things that allow me to pop out of bed every morning, excited to go to work at a company and with a team I have been passionate about since the early days of my career.”

Bigelow holds a Bachelor of Science in nutrition from the University of Connecticut, as well as a master’s degree in food science and nutrition from the University of Rhode Island. He has been the recipient of many business and industry awards, including being named to Providence Business News’ “40 Under Forty” list in 2015.