Tara Mullen

Tara Mullen is a research and development director at Cargill, a Minnesota-based global food and agribusiness leader, where she leads the Bioindustrial Product Chemistry and Process Development team. Today, Tara’s team is focused on developing performance-driven, nature-derived chemistries to solve industrial application challenges.

Tara brings more than 20 years of working and leading teams in R&D. Before joining Cargill in 2021, she spent six years at SUEZ Water Technologies (formerly GE Water) as Product Line Director and as Global R&D Director for Filter and Membrane Solutions. She has also held R&D and business development roles at start-up companies in the green chemistry field. Tara holds 17 U.S. patents, with experience bringing innovations from the lab to the market.

She is an advocate for women in STEM and young chemists. Tara is currently the senior advisor to Cargill’s Women in R&D Business Resource Group. She has served as a mentor for Project Action: Empowering Women in STEM and co-founded the Brian and Tara Mullen Scholarship at the University of Southern Indiana, which supports undergraduate chemistry students looking to attend graduate programs. She earned her Ph.D. in polymer science and engineering from the University of Southern Mississippi and her chemistry degree from St. Norbert College.