Lou Cooperhouse

Founder, President & CEO

Lou Cooperhouse is recognized as a leading global authority in food business innovation and technology commercialization, with extensive leadership experiences throughout his 40-year career in the food industry.  He is a results-driven professional, and has led cross-functional teams in a wide array of industry settings that include: multinational corporations, foodservice and retail operations, new business startups, mid-sized and family-run companies, university entrepreneurship and innovation centers, and industry trade associations.   With his deep and diverse understanding of the food industry, Lou has spoken at hundreds of conferences throughout his career, specializing in food trends, disruptive technologies, entrepreneurship development, and global best practices in business innovation and incubation. A summary of Lou’s career experiences in entrepreneurship were featured as the cover story in Food Technology Magazine, titled Oceans of Innovation in December 2023.

Most recently, Lou served as CEO of Food Spectrum, LLC, where he provided a broad array of strategic consulting and business management expertise to the food industry. Areas of specialization and focus included: corporate development and strategic planning; organizational leadership and team building; merger and acquisition assessment; corporate partnering and sales development; new product ideation, innovation and incubation; product and process development; technology assessment and commercialization; quality assurance and food safety systems; plant and process design and engineering; and operational performance and metrics. 

Lou also recently served as a founder and the Executive Director of the Rutgers University Food Innovation Center (FIC), led this program for approximately 15 years, and served as Chair of the Center’s Advisory Board. At the FIC, Lou created a new global model for food industry economic development, business attraction and retention, and industry cluster creation. The Center subsequently became internationally recognized for its economic development impacts, and recognized as the “Business Incubator of the Year” by the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA), and as a nationwide model and an “Agricultural Innovation Center Demonstration Program” by the USDA.  

Previously, Lou served as President & COO of F&S Produce, a leading regional supplier of fresh-cut produce and value-added refrigerated foods, providing leadership to over 500 employees, located at two facilities with over 125,000 sf operations.  Prior to this, he served as Co-Founder, President and CEO of MenuDirect Corporation, a unique health, wellness, and nutrition company, which provided meal solutions for individuals with celiac disease, diabetes, PKU and dysphagia.  Earlier in his career, Lou held positions of increasing responsibility at Campbell’s Soup, ConAgra, Nestlé-funded Culinary Brands, Idle Wild Farms, and Grand Union Supermarkets in areas of business development, product development, quality assurance, and operations.  

Lou has personally been responsible for leading corporate pioneering efforts that resulted in the commercialization of numerous new food technologies in the global marketplace, that include sous vide, high pressure processing, and modified atmosphere packaging.   He also led a team of food scientists and chefs that developed the first comprehensive line of gluten-free products worldwide, completed in the late 1990’s, as well as other product lines focused on disease management. Lou has also authored numerous articles in food industry trade magazines, as well as the first syndicated research study on “home meal replacement” and the emerging category of “Retail Prepared Refrigerated Foods – The Market and Technologies” that was published in 2002.

During his career, Lou has spent considerable time internationally, in the development of business strategies and centers of excellence in support of entrepreneurship in under-represented regions of the world.   This includes his role in creating the business, technology, and operations strategy for a food business incubation program at Makerere University in Uganda focused on alleviating rural poverty, in collaboration with TechnoServe and the Rockefeller Foundation; a national  “One Village One Product” strategy developed to revitalize local economies, boost community pride, and develop local industries throughout the 36 states of Nigeria, in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN); and the development of the first food business incubation program at the University of Hawaii Maui College to support entrepreneurs in the rural communities of Maui, Lānaʻi, and Molokaʻi.

Lou also served as an expert witness to the US Congress House Committee on Small Business, where he testified on global best practices in business incubation, open innovation, business cluster formation,and job creation.  This led to a new federal funding program, the US SBA Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) that provides funds to entrepreneur support organizations that target underserved regions, industries, and communities throughout the United States. Independent of this, Lou also organized, created and implemented FoodBIN (Food Business Innovation Network) as the first-ever global association of business incubators, innovation centers and accelerators, which resulted in numerous conferences and connections among entrepreneurship service programs worldwide. In addition, Lou has been an Invited speaker to the World Bank, USDA, US SBA, Rockefeller Foundation, Gates Foundation, and to government agencies and organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, where he has shared his experiences for best practices in business incubation and entrepreneurship development.

During his career, Lou has served on the Board of Directors of the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA); President of the New Jersey Business Incubation Network; Executive Director and President of the New Jersey Food Processors Association; Board member of the Refrigerated Foods Association; Board member of the United Fresh Produce Association; Board of Managers of the NJ Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers University; and the Editorial Advisory Board of Produce Processing Magazine.  Lou is also a member of the Explorers Club, an international organization dedicated to promoting the exploration of land, sea, air and space, and to inspire new generations to pursue discovery and conservation. He’s also a member of the Society of Fellows at the Culinary Institute of America.

He has also received various industry certifications, and is designated as a Certified Facilitator in Business Model Canvas & Value Proposition Design, by completing advanced curriculum requirements of the InBIA in 2015. In addition, he is Certified in Preventive Controls for Human Food (issued by the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance in 2016), is a Certified Trainer in HACCP (issued by the International HACCP Alliance in 2013), and is also Certified as a ServSafe Food Protection Manager (issued by the American National Standards Institute in 2013). ·     

Lou received a MS in Food Science and BS in Microbiology, both from Rutgers University, and has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Rutgers Business School. In 2025, he was honored by the Rutgers School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, as he received the Distinguished Graduate Alumni Award which is the highest honor bestowed upon advanced degree alumni.