Links Chen is a Corporate Executive Research Chef supporting PepsiCo China in Shanghai. Chef Links arrived at PepsiCo after spending seven years at Givaudan where he supported China as one of their Executive Chefs for R&D. Links has become the partner of choice to key customers for New Food Concept Developments utilizing trend and consumer data. Contributing to culinary excellence for gold and key customer briefs, Links also provided internal and external chef to shelf translations.

Prior to his role in new product development, Links helped develop and contribute to the Regional Culinary Innovation in Shanghai. From here, he graced the kitchens at 4 and 5-star hotels in Shanghai. Links started his culinary career in April 1993, learning culinary operation management from his western Executive Chef who worked at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai. After years in the Grand Hyatt Banquet kitchen, Links wanted a new challenge. After leaving the Hyatt Shanghai in 2001, he joined the Wuhan Oriental Hotel as an Executive Chef. It is here that he started to manage his culinary team and support F&B business sales. His expertise was helpful in growing the hotels revenue by 140% in 2002. After one year, Links went back to Shanghai to work at Premium Fair Lake restaurant as the Head Chef. Links went on to design many innovative menus as well as serve various VIP and film stars in Shanghai. In the Summer of 2005, Links began to rethink his culinary career development, moving into the test foods industry. Beginning his culinary career in Givaudan Shanghai office in 2005, it was the perfect opportunity to learn from an international flavor company. With a passion for smart culinary design and improved flavor innovations, Links went on to work at Givaudan for seven years in China.

In July of 2012, Links joined the PepsiCo family. At PepsiCo, he begun on building a culinary innovation center. From here, his role expanded to include snack, food service, nutrition product development, sales, and marketing business development.

Links continues to provide culinary innovation resources to support PepsiCo in new product development. For the future, Links continues to learn from e-commerce data, believing that any culinary team can leverage data for future growth.