Research & Development Team

Ray Karam
Tastemaster™

Ray Karam joined Cold Stone Creamery in January 2002 with more than 25 years of industry experience under his belt. Having worked 15 years with Carnation Company which later became Nestle Foods, Ray brings with him a wealth of experience, both in product development and quality control. In addition, Ray held senior-level positions at Sun Street Ice Cream Company and Native Planet Foods Inc. (parent company of Miss Karen's Frozen Yogurt) where he invented Frutazza, a frozen fruit smoothie line. Ray graduated from State University College at Oneonta, NY with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. He also completed graduate coursework in Agribusiness and Food Science at Arizona State University.

Ray tastes about a dozen flavors throughout the course of the day. In total, he consumes about 10 ounces of ice cream, equivalent to Cold Stone Creamery's "Love It" size. He is responsible for evolving the company's ice cream cakes and Signature Creations, all of which entail researching and developing the indulgent combinations of ice cream and mix-ins people have come to expect form Cold Stone Creamery. Ray is also the visionary behind Red Pan™, a collection of extraordinary ice cream flavors introduced in 2005 including Red Hot, Wasabi-Ginger, Black Licorice, Oatmeal Cookie Batter and Dark Chocolate Peppermint.

Several of Ray's latest innovations have him teaming up with other popular brands, including a limited time only smoothie made with Mountain Dew, and in 2008, an indulgent chocolate ice cream made with Ghirardelli cocoa. These partnerships that meld well-known flavors with Cold Stone Creamery ice cream are wildly popular, even with the tastemaster himself. In fact, the Ghirardelli partnership has Ray calling the Chocolate Caramel Heaven Creation made with chocolate ice cream, Ghirardelli caramel squares and chocolate chips his new favorite combination, claiming "it takes me to my happy place."

Ray does acknowledge there are sometimes setbacks to being the official tastemaster for Cold Stone Creamery, noting "my wife doesn't like it when I come home with ice cream in my beard." His other passion is music and in his off hours or on weekends you can usually find him behind a guitar jammin' with other musicians.