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GENEVA , September 14, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Elite distinction celebrates the highest level of excellence and achievement in

the field of fragrance creation

Firmenich, the world's largest privately-owned fragrance and taste company, has

appointed three new Master Perfumers. François-Raphaël Balestra, Wessel-Jan Kos

and Haresh Totlani will join Firmenich's most prestigious group of Master

Perfumers dedicated to Consumer Fragrances for Beauty and Home Care. They will

be joining an exclusive elite of only nine Master Perfumers who have reached

the highest level of excellence and achievement in their respective fields,

while exhibiting exemplary leadership qualities and a lived commitment to

Firmenich's values.

"Firmenich's innovation and deep understanding of consumer habits and

preferences enables us to deliver market-leading fragrances," Firmenich CEO

Gilbert Ghostine said. "What makes us stand out is our perfumers' spark of

creative genius. Their mastery makes for the truly successful touch that

inspires consumers to fall in love with our customers' brands and products. I

am delighted to welcome three new Firmenich Master Perfumers who have shown

excellence in their field, commitment to our values and who act as true role

models for the whole community of perfumers."

Ilaria Resta, Global President, Perfumery, commented: "Our three new Master

Perfumers have over 80 years' experience at the cutting edge of perfumery

innovation, and their path to this level shows their dedication, work ethic,

and strong commitment to their craft. They combine exceptional creativity with

understanding of technology to augment performance, as well as an innate

ability to drive customer intimacy by understanding consumer insights and

anticipating the future trends in a complex and ever-changing market. One of

the biggest mission of masters is to leave a long-lasting legacy in the market

with their creations that live the test of time and become icons, as well as

with their dedication to pass their experience to the younger generations to

create the masters of the future."

François-Raphaël Balestra is a Swiss national who graduated from EPFL, the

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, with a Master's in Chemical

Engineering. He joined Firmenich in 1999. Together with his role as perfumer

for beauty care and home care products, creating olfactive signatures of major

laundry products all over the globe, he is also the head of New Ingredients

Discovery for Perfumery at Firmenich. Here he works in close collaboration with

R&D on the screening of new generations of molecules and biotechnology

ingredients to integrate to the perfumer's palette and enhance perfumery

creations. He notably collaborated on the creation of Dreamwood™, a white

biotechnology innovation inspired by sandalwood that is 100% natural, 100%

renewable carbon and ultimately biodegradable and Muguissimo™, an exceptionally

close to nature Lily-of-the-Valley note born from green synthesis.

His vocation to become a perfumer started with his first visit to Firmenich

Geneva's offices at the age of seven, as the son of a now retired perfume lab

assistant who had spent 40 years in the company. His fascination for the work

of perfumers and the variety of raw ingredients naturally led him to becoming a

perfumer. "Inspiration always comes from the ingredients first, they stimulate

my creativity, especially our proprietary ingredients that embody the soul of

Firmenich, they express our uniqueness, our difference, and our commitment to

perfection," he says.

Wessel-Jan Kos, a Dutch national from Hilversum, is a third-generation perfumer

after his father and self-taught grandfather. His career as a Firmenich

perfumer spans more than three decades. A graduate from ISIPCA

[ https://www.isipca-school.com/  ], the renowned fragrance and cosmetics school

in Paris, he is an all-round perfumer creating fragrances for all beauty care

and home care applications for world renowned brands, winning over 200 new

products a year over the past decade. Wessel-Jan's career at Firmenich has

taken him around the globe: in Geneva, Dubai, London, Cologne and Princeton,

USA. During his years in the UK, he was the Vice President of the British

Society of Perfumers. Wessel-Jan has been instrumental in the development of

malodor counteraction technologies at Firmenich, putting his name to several

patents. He has also contributed to the rise of biotechnology ingredients over

the last years, notably Z11 HD, 100% biodegradable and made from 100% renewable

carbon. "I like my fragrances to be simple and direct, so that people

immediately understand what I intend to create," he says.

Haresh Totlani has been with Firmenich for the last 24 years, in Geneva,

Singapore, Mumbai and London. He has created signature winning fragrances for

many of the world's best-known brands in Asia and Europe, as well as regional

and local brands in many categories, especially for soap, shower gels,

shampoos, fabric softeners and laundry detergents. Haresh, an Indian national,

holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Mumbai and

completed an Executive MBA Program from Kellogg-HKUST. From 2012 to 2015, he

was the Head of Firmenich's Creation Center in India, a role given for the

first time to a perfumer. He has been a mentor to many younger Firmenich

trainee perfumers and fragrance evaluators, and is a winner of the Patrick

Firmenich Award both in 2019 and 2020, recognizing his creative excellence and

his outstanding use of Firmenich ingredients to bring unique signatures to

customers' products. Haresh Totlani believes "perfumes change the way people

feel. It makes them happy and confident."

About Firmenich

Firmenich, the world's largest privately-owned fragrance and taste company, was

founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1895, and has been family-owned for 127

years. Firmenich is a leading business-to-business company specialized in the

research, creation, manufacture and sale of perfumes, flavors, and ingredients.

Renowned for its world-class research and creativity, as well as its leadership

in sustainability, Firmenich offers its customers superior innovation in

formulation, a broad and high-quality palette of ingredients, and proprietary

technologies including biotechnology, encapsulation, olfactory science, and

taste modulation. Firmenich had an annual turnover of 4.7 billion Swiss Francs

at end June 2022. More information about Firmenich is available at

www.firmenich.com .

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SOURCE: Firmenich