Kara Nielsen is a food and beverage trend expert with over a decade of experience translating consumer and culinary trends for strategic brand growth and innovative product development. She is Vice President, Trends & Marketing at CCD Innovation, a strategic food and beverage innovation agency based in the San Francisco Bay Area and where she was Trendologist for many years earlier in her career. Kara also had experience creating and sharing consumer and culinary trend content at Innova Market Insights, Sterling-Rice Group and CEB Iconoculture Consumer Insights.

Nielsen is a frequent speaker on food trends at industry trade shows and conferences and is quoted regularly in national and industry media. Her success at placing trends in a larger societal and cultural context comes from her background in culinary arts and restaurant hospitality as well as her master’s degree studies in Gastronomy at Boston University.