kp and me: Vincent Gass

Picture showing Vincent Gass, Vice President, Strategic Marketing & Innovation for kp’s Food Packaging division in a street standing

Vincent Gass is Vice President, Strategic Marketing & Innovation for kp’s Food Packaging division. In addition to his leadership role, he has a passion for start-ups and recently pitched a life-changing cancer technology at a leading oncology convention.

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What do you do at kp?

I lead our Marketing & Innovation team, working alongside 45 passionate individuals to inspire customer excitement around our brand and product portfolio. Together, we develop new concepts and set our strategic roadmap to bring them to market, often setting new industry standards. I love kp’s customer-centric mindset - our R&D approach ensures we deliver tailored innovations that meet the unique needs of each customer.

How long have you worked at kp for?

It has almost been four years. I’ve had the opportunity to do so much, and continue to build my skills, and those of my team, to help us deliver the right packaging solutions for all our customers.

What is the best thing about your team?

The innovation. With thousands of tonnes of packaging produced globally every month and working in this industry, I acknowledge we have a huge responsibility to minimise our impact. When concepts like kp Tray2Tray^® - aimed at closing the loop for food packaging – progress from concept to commercial product, I reflect with pride on the way kp transforms ideas into impactful solutions.

And I’ll never stop marvelling at kp Infinity® - our single-use, fully recyclable, food service packaging which is not affected by the polystyrene single-use food-to-go packaging ban. The product is a real trailblazer.

And I’ll never stop marvelling at kp Infinity^® - our single-use, fully recyclable, food service packaging which is not affected by the polystyrene single-use food-to-go packaging ban. The product is a real trailblazer. It’s made from extruded polypropylene, has excellent insulation and is microwaveable.

It addresses the difficult food service market, which rarely benefits from such game-changing innovation, as it is highly fragmented. Launching it was a highlight – we worked with influencers and earned the Winner Marketing Award at the Foodservice Packaging Association Awards in 2024 for our TikTok marketing campaign, which delivered almost 4 million impressions! If only we could get the R&D group to design in a dip holder (I’m a big sauce dipper!).

Have you had to take on new challenges at kp?

I’ve had the same role since I joined kp, and what keeps it exciting is how the company continues to evolve - each day brings new challenges and opportunities to grow. Our business needs to be agile, and this mindset filters through to the way we approach our business, constantly optimising processes and making sure we deliver on our promises.

Have you been inspired by any of your colleagues?

I’m inspired by my team daily and enjoy working with our board chairman. He has the knack of distilling key information clearly and succinctly, all while remaining aligned to kp’s vision. His strategic mindset is inspiring, and I feel I learn a lot from him, especially when it comes to developing my own gravitas and negotiation skills.

What do you get up to outside of work?

I really enjoy working at kp, and alongside this, I teach innovation at École Centrale de Lyon. I also spend a lot of my weekends mentoring start-up businesses in the oncology field. I learn so much from the students and founders I work with, and I recently had the opportunity to showcase a groundbreaking cancer treatment at a leading oncology convention.

“This is more than innovation. This start-up is bringing a mini revolution to the market with a vision to make new therapies accessible to everyone and everywhere. We have a technology in our hands that can potentially change the lives of more than 10 million new patients every year!”

Vincent Gass

Vice President, Strategic Marketing & Innovation for kp’s Food Packaging division

Recobia Therapeutics, a biotech spin-off of Institut de Cancérologie Strasbourg Europe, is pioneering a transformative approach that shifts biotherapies from intravenous to subcutaneous administration, making treatments faster, less painful, and more accessible for patients. Taking to the stage at MEET2WIN, I gave a heartfelt pitch about the technology developed by Recobia to over 300 oncology executives (earning the team 1st prize in the prestigious Quick Pitch Session!). The technology has already shown promising results in preclinical studies focused on breast cancer and holds potential for broader applications across oncology. For me, this company is a powerful example of how purpose-driven leadership and scientific innovation can come together to make a real-world impact, and I couldn’t be prouder to join forces against cancer with this amazing team.

Reflecting on my start-up experiences, the top three lessons I’ve carried into my day-to-day work are:

Agility: Driving innovation through iterations of minimum viable products.
Patient at core: Which translates to customer centricity at kp.
Blending intuition with data: Innovation isn’t always about reinventing everything - it’s about realising the limitations of a product and finding targeted ways to overcome them.

I also absolutely love spending time in Corsica, having fallen in love with the island during my honeymoon. I dream of settling there one day - the culture, language, food, people, and heritage draw me back to visit whenever I can.

I can usually be found refurbishing an old granite stone “caseddu” (shepherd’s hut) or scuba diving. I’m also learning the language, and I’m taking singing lessons (my first big show fairly soon!).

Picture showing Vincent Gass in a street in front of a wall