Dr. Friend has worked within the Australian Food Industry for the last 19 years, first at Davis Gelatine and for the last 11 years at Burns Philp & Co. Limited.

During his period at Burns Philp Dr. Friend has overseen a dramatic increase in the R&D funded by Burns Philp, both internally and externally, and in so doing has substantially increased the breadth and depth of this R&D and its transfer into commercial practice, both within Australia and overseas. He has been instrumental in enabling Burns Philp to turn useful scientific results into useful technology for the benefit of the company.

Dr. Friend's yeast team has supported and made a key contribution to Burns Philp's expansion of its international bakers yeast business from a $20M a year base 10 years ago to a figure approaching $300M (constant $) a year currently. Another multi-disciplinary team led by Dr. Friend developed and successfully introduced a biological control product for the prevention of a severe disease of the Australia's mushroom crop. The product and technology is currently being transferred to a number of other countries. The efforts of the team were recognised by the Food Innovation Award in 1990, awarded by the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology.

Collaborative efforts with other Australian companies and Government institutions will continue to grow substantially as Burns Philp is now the lead industrial partner in a recently announced Co-operative Research Centre for Food Industry Innovation.
Dr. Friend is in direct or indirect control of approximately 150 research and development personnel, half in Australia, the other half spread through a number of countries, servicing the needs of a fast growing food ingredients business, with current sales of A$1.3B per annum.