Chocolate Research Fellow
Mars Chocolate North America
Elizabethtown, Pa.

For someone who holds one of the most interesting job titles in the industry, “Chocolate Research Fellow,” it’s rather surprising to see that Edward Seguine’s career didn’t begin with chocolate. A graduate of the California Institute of Technology, the chemical engineering major started his professional life with Procter & Gamble, spending 15 years in manufacturing management, process and product development, market research and technical service.

However, those years at P&G provided the foundation for his life’s work, which he embraced upon joining Guittard Chocolate Co. in 1983. There, he applied his product and process development skills to creating new chocolate products.

Through visits to the fields in the producing countries and working with farmers, co-ops, researchers, institutions and other organizations, Seguine located heritage cacao, helping Guittard establish a new premium line of chocolates.

In overseeing all aspects of converting specialty beans into chocolate — from fermentation guidance through roasting and conching — Seguine helped introduce the entire E. Guittard line of chocolates used by fine chefs and confectioners.

Additionally, he serves as a primary chocolate liquor taste reference on a number of international projects, providing evaluation services to the cocoa growing community.

Upon joining Mars in January 2009, Seguine began using all his skills in chocolate liquor and chocolate tasting to support farmers, cooperatives and country cocoa institutes to ensure that flavor profiles are retained in all breeding and development work.

A key part of Seguine’s responsibility involves assisting Mars in sourcing, sustainability and chocolate taste applications, particularly as it applies to the sequencing and annotating of the cocoa genome, where he plays a critical role in the identification of flavor attributes.

Seguine is active in a host of professional organizations, including the American Association of Candy Technologists, the PMCA, the National Confectioners Association and the World Cocoa Foundation, and is chairman of the International Cocoa Organization’s Fine and Flavor Cacao Committee.

He has published numerous papers on cocoa and chocolate and also holds several patents. In addition to receiving the Chocolate Manufacturers Association’s Distinguished Service Award, he also was the first PMCA Marie Kelso Memorial Award recipient as well as the Stroud Jordon Award winner.