Andrew Tilley took out a BSc Hons. from Curtin University in 2016 majoring in Food Science and Technology. An undergraduate highlight was a stint as R&D Intern on a New Colombo Plan Scholarship that enabled Tilley to spend two months onsite at Guilin Seamild Industries in China. Post-graduation, he spent a further 20 months at Curtin Uni as NPD Research Officer, running research and production trials and conducting shelf-life, sensory and textural analyses. Over the same period, Tilley founded food manufacturing SME Gelavo P/L, upcycling what would have been wasted avocados into healthier frozen desserts. 

In December 2017, he took a fulltime position at frozen ready-meals firm Vesco Foods, makers of Lean Cuisine as Innovation Food Technologist, being promoted soon afterwards to Senior Sensory Technologist. In October 2018, Tilley joined Vesco’s Innovation team as Product Sensory Technologist, responsible for optimising formulations and processes, preparing product costings and project-managing product development across two national sites. In 2019, Tilley was a Finalist in Pitch@Palace 3.0 – a Buckingham Palace pitching platform for entrepreneurs; a semi-finalist for Western Australia Innovator of the Year; and a TEDxUWA Speaker (topic, ‘A home for ugly fruit’). Tilley returned to academia in mid-2021 as a part-time lecturer and unit coordinator for food product development and food science at Murdoch University and as a CRC-sponsored Industry PhD on the CRC’s ‘Artichokes’ project. Read more about Andrew Tilley here; and about the Artichokes project, involving Murdoch University researchers and premium artichoke grower Mt Lindesay, here and here.