Six Questions with Arlin Wasserman, Founder of Changing Tastes

Arlin Wasserman

Arlin Wasserman is the founder of Changing Tastes, a consultancy that helps it clients find opportunity and realize value at the intersection of the five major drivers of change in our food system: sustainability, public health, information technology, demographics and the changing role of the culinary professional. The firm’s insights are the basis for the strategy, innovation, sustainability and performance management services it provides to Fortune 500 and growth stage food companies, public and private investors, and nongovernmental organizations. His firm has helped identify and catalyze some of the most significant shifts in the way business and consumers think about food including working with General Mills to develop one of the first sustainability management programs in the food industry, developing an industry-wide initiative to link organic farming and public health for the Organic Trade Association, developing the strategic plan that underpins the National Farm to School Network, bringing together the foodservice industry around common standards for sustainable seafood, and working with the Culinary Institute of America and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to create and realize Menus of Change. Arlin now chairs of the Sustainable Business Leadership Council for Menus of Change. Arlin also previously served as Vice President of Sustainability at Sodexo, the world’s largest institutional foodservice company, and as the executive champion for culinary and health and wellness efforts in the North American market. He also has been awarded a Food and Society Fellowship by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and a “First Movers” Fellowship for business leadership and innovation by the Aspen Institute. Arlin holds a Masters Degrees in Natural Resources and Public Health, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, all from the University of Michigan.