Cordell Hardy

Cordell Hardy is Vice President, North America R&D for Cargill's Food Enterprise, where he leads the organization's customer-facing technical application, sensory, and innovation capabilities across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In partnership with commercial teams and customers, he helps translate science and technology into differentiated food solutions that drive growth, strengthen customer relationships, and address evolving consumer needs. This role and organizational scope are reflected in the current executive team biography.

Prior to his current position, Cordell served as Vice President of Core R&D for Cargill, leading foundational science, advanced technologies, and enterprise technical capabilities supporting long-term innovation across the company's global food portfolio. Before joining Cargill, he spent 20 years with 3M Company, ultimately serving as Senior Vice President, Corporate R&D Operations, where he led a global organization supporting technical infrastructure, laboratories, pilot operations, product stewardship, and innovation activities spanning more than 70 countries.

Cordell is particularly interested in how emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, can augment human creativity and accelerate innovation across food systems, manufacturing, sustainability, and scientific discovery. He is a frequent advocate for combining deep technical expertise with customer insight, entrepreneurial thinking, and responsible technology deployment to solve complex global challenges.

He holds BS and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from Florida A&M University and the University of Minnesota and has served on both corporate and nonprofit boards, including CyberOptics and Minnesota Community Care.