François Guillon is the HOT POT project leader. In this respect he coordinates the three partner institutions and watches after the normal progress of the project’s parts. He also links with the « HOT POT network » made of companies and institutions interested in the project.
A graduate of HEC Management School (Paris / Jouy en Josas), François Guillon holds also a degree in bakery, obtained at the Grands Moulins de Paris Bakery School when he was in charge of the Vie de France Europe chain of bakeries-restaurants.
His professional profile, from 1970 to nowadays, is characterized by continuous back and forth moves between academic and business activities.
He first was an Assistant then an Assistant Professor at HEC Management School. After seven years he engaged in business for another seven years in order to practice what he used to teach, first with Grands Moulins de Paris, then with Sodexo Alliance, in charge of the Middle East commercial pastry-shops.
François Guillon came back to France where he was soon given the responsibility of the AgriFood Economics and Food marketing curricula at the Paris Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. He developed simultaneously a consultancy in food marketing and strategy: During this period, he used to consult for large companies among which Accor, Sodexo, Casino, Cora, Danone, Ferrero, Nabisco Brands, and for middle-sized brands among which Fleury-Michon, Vahiné and Pomona.
In 2001, he became a member of the “Food and Health” engineers’ curriculum founding team at Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais (80 food and health graduates every year in 2010). Meanwhile he used to develop a research activity in food and health marketing; he also started an in-depth exploration of the links between food marketing and ethics. He is now a full-time professor at LaSalle Beauvais and was given in 2007 the responsibility of the Food Marketing and Ethics Chair.
François Guillon founded in 2003 and is still President of the not-for-profit IREMAS organization (Institute for Research in Food and Health Marketing); members of this organization are researchers and food companies, among which Coca-Cola, Danone, Kraft Biscuits, Lactalis, Monoprix, Quick, and communication agencies including Protéines (France) and Enzyme (Canada).
