Kellogg Company Senior Vice President Margaret Bath receives honorary doctorate from KU Leuven

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Oct. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Leuven (KU Leuven), upon recommendation of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, is conferring the degree of doctor honoris causa upon Ms. Margaret Bath, Senior Vice President, Research, Quality and Technology at Kellogg Company, Battle Creek, MI, USA. Ms. Bath will accept the honorary degree at a conferral ceremony in Leuven, Belgium on October 30. 

KU Leuven, Belgium's largest university and the oldest university in the Low Countries, has a centuries-long tradition of recognizing global leaders of exceptional distinction and vision. Each year it confers a small number of doctor honoris causa degrees to individuals from academia and the wider society who exemplify excellence in research, education and service to society.

Continuing in this tradition, KU Leuven is honoring Ms. Bath for her prominent role as Senior Vice President, Research, Quality and Technology at Kellogg Company and as a partner, cornerstone and model of the triple helix concept that joins university, industry and government.

Ms. Bath has shown that the triple helix can be successfully leveraged across the entire food supply chain, from 'farm to fork' and from 'fork to farm'. She actively values universities and research institutes not only as sources of human capital, knowledge and technology, but also as cultivators of new discoveries. In that light, KU Leuven honors her as an innovative executive, partner and discoverer in her own right.

Recent KU Leuven doctores honoris causa include Herman Van Rompuy, first permanent President of the European Council, Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Navi Pillay, UN High Representative for Human Rights, Alfons Voragen, former Professor of Food Chemistry at Wageningen University, and Pedro Sanchez, former Director-General of the International Research Centre for Research in Agroforestry. These latter two honorary degrees were conferred upon recommendation of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering.

At the conferral ceremony on October 30, Ms. Bath will present an honoree address on the 'The Power of the Triple Helix Concept in Guaranteeing Today's and Tomorrow's Supply of Healthy Food for the Growing World Population'.

Margaret Bath

Ms. Margaret Bath was born May 10, 1964 in Kansas City, Kansas. She holds a B.S. in Food Science from the University of Maryland. She has been Kellogg Company's Senior Vice President, Research, Quality and Technology since 2011. She is also a member of the company's Executive Leadership Team, headed by CEO John Bryant. Ms. Bath joined Kellogg Company as Director of Global Product Development in March 2000 and was promoted to Vice President, Snacking Research and Technology for the Kellogg's Snacks Division in 2002. In 2004, she was promoted to Vice President, Research, Quality and Technology and became Senior Vice President, Research, Quality and Technology in May 2011. Prior to joining the Kellogg Company, Ms. Bath was employed by Frito Lay.

Ms. Bath is a member of the governing board of the Top Institute for Food and Nutrition (Netherlands), the advisory board of the Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Research Centre (LFoRCe, KU Leuven, Belgium) and the industrial advisory board of Monell Chemical Senses. She is a former board member of the American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC International).

SOURCE Kellogg Company; KU Leuven