Leading innovation agency Sterling-Rice Group has named Daniel Carpenter to the newly-created position of Managing Director – Culinary at the fast-growing agency. Carpenter is joining SRG from Nextbite, a national virtual kitchen company where he served as Vice President – Culinary.

The hire marks a move by SRG to expand the services of its pioneering Culinary group which has built a world-class capability in innovation, recipe development, concept and protocept development, menu strategy and optimization, and culinary trend forecasting. It brings these services to a wide range of clients in CPG, restaurant, retail and foodservice.

“We have invested in building a leading culinary offering that has helped create over $10 billion in incremental value for our clients in the past five years alone,” says Cindy Judge, CEO of SRG. “Daniel is a change maker in the culinary field, and we are excited he will be joining us to deepen our capabilities.

Daniel brings broad and deep experience to SRG as a trained attorney, chef, principal of a culinary consultancy and most recently Vice President – Culinary at Nextbite, a national virtual kitchen company. He has also been a longstanding member of SRG’s renowned Culinary Council, a group of elite chefs, food scientists, authors and restaurateurs who consult with the agency on food trends that inform its work for clients.

“I’ve dreamed of joining SRG and being a key part of the agency since I first started working with them over 12 years ago,” adds Daniel Carpenter. “Having most recently been at the center of expanding the off-premise sector by building virtual brands as well as helping over many years to bring transformation to the culinary marketplace, I look forward to growing the work SRG does in this and so many other emerging spaces in the industry.”