2024 – Karen Alexander

Karen Alexander

Presented by Chairperson, Cathianne Leonardi, on May 9, 2024 at the Annual Awards Dinner in Newark, NJ.

Speaking on behalf of the Society of Flavor Chemists, it is my pleasure to introduce you to our 2024 Golden Blotter Award to Karen Alexander, Principal Flavorist at IFF.

For those of you who know Karen selecting her for this award is no surprise.  For those who are getting to know Karen it’s important to share that when she learned she was selected for this award, the news came as a very big, and unexpected, surprise.  Her reaction included “Why me?  All I do is what I think are the right things to do at the time.”

It took a while to convince her how rare it is to possess courage born of conviction.  It reminded me of a book of positive thinking she gave me early in my career which contains a phrase attributed to Theodore Roosevelt: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Over the course of her career, Karen has done just that.  She has crafted winning flavors, secured alternative sources of supply and trained future generations of flavorists.

Training flavorists is not for the faint of heart.  Flavorists in training are curious people who do curious things like wondering how long the sample spray dryer ought to emit smoke before turning it off?  For those who may be in training now; the answer, as I learned from Karen many years ago, is immediately turn it off and try not to do it twice.

Karen’s kindness, ability to adapt and lead is admirable.  While building a career for herself and helping others to do the same she has volunteered as a former Membership Chairperson and is a current Committee member.  As the SFC has evolved she has helped our organization to become better and better by tirelessly raising and implementing innumerable improvements to the SFC’s ways oworking without reservation or expectation.

Honoring Karen’s contributions must include those that matter to her most – her two daughters, Nikki and Dani, and their four beautiful children.  With time being our most precious resource, Karen modeled work-life balance years before it became a marketable term, allowing others to similarly achieve balance and find successes for themselves.

Her selfless dedication reminds me of a quote attributed to another Roosevelt- Eleanor Roosevelt: “For our own success to be real it must contribute to the success of others.”  By presenting Karen with the 2024 Golden Blotter Award, the Society of Flavor Chemists we honor the circle of success she has made with her family, employers and colleagues to the benefit of our industry.