Flavorist, Sweet Creation
Sweetness shaped Marilyn long before she shaped sweetness professionally. One of her earliest memories is dipping a biscuit into Milo — timing the softening just right before it collapsed — which taught her that sweetness is deeply tied to anticipation, nostalgia and pleasure. With a degree in Food Science and Technology from the National University of Singapore and nearly a decade of experience in sweet modulation, she now develops solutions for beverage, dairy and confectionery across Asia-Pacific, helping brands reduce sugar without reducing joy.
Marilyn is fascinated by how flavor carries memory as much as chemistry. To her, grape candy and fresh grapes are both “grape,” yet they tell completely different sensory stories — a reminder that flavor is expectation, texture and aroma as much as taste. Even her favorite flavor, kacang ma, reflects that truth: emotionally powerful, culturally rooted and so beautifully polarizing that it defies commercialization.
In every project, Marilyn’s goal is not just to make sweetness work, but to make it mean something.
Lead Ambassador for Sweet Modulation, Greater Asia: Served as the RE-IMAGINE WELLNESS™ Greater Asia Lead Ambassador for Sweet Modulation in 2020-2021 and again from 2025 to the present, driving regional innovation in sugar reduction, clean-label formulation and taste optimization.
Champion for Regional Modulation Training and Capability Building: Led regional training programs on modulation, elevating technical competency and fostering innovation across IFF’s flavor, application and sensory teams in Greater Asia.
Graduated from IFF’s Three-Year Flavorist Development Program: Completed IFF’s rigorous training program, building strong foundations in sensory evaluation, sweet tonality design, modulation science and cross-category application expertise.