VP IT Innovation, Nestle
Goran was born in Croatia where he began his IT career as a programmer, after obtaining his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and aster in Computer Science from University of Zagreb. He joined Nestle in April of 2002, at the Nestle Research Centre in Vers-chez-les-Blancs. With a hand in various IT functions in R&D, Goran’s passion for new technologies and innovation was born when he led a cross-functional team on the ‘Digital Mom’ project, leveraging Design Thinking in collaboration with NIN US. Subsequently, Goran moved to San Francisco to create the GLOBE Innovation outpost.
Goran’s first professional experience was in Croatia, developing a number of systems on Delphi as a programmer for the Croatian Television.
He then moved to a small Web solutions and design company based in Lausanne and London, working as an IT project manager for clients such as Rolex, Reuters, Swatch, Orange and BCV.
Goran joined Nestle in 2002, growing in a number of IT functions supporting the R&D organization, including roles as .NET developer, IS Project Manager, IS Development Lead for NRC, IS Development Lead for R&D, R&D Business Excellence and Manager of IS/IT for R&D Centres.
End of 2015, Goran transferred to the Digital Services Unit to lead the digital consumer innovation out of San Francisco, and thus became responsible for Digital Consumer Innovation. During his tenure, GLOBE presence in the SVIO team grew exponentially, generating a number of prototypes and market implementations in the areas of IoT, AI, AR/VR and new business models. Goran has also pioneered the Digital Immersion Program since 2016.
With his appointment as Group Head of IT Innovation and R&D Product stream in 2018, Goran continues to leverage and merge both his R&D roles and innovation expertise. Based out of San Francisco, his mission is to grow the established innovation models for Nestlé and champion digital transformation across all businesses and functions.
