Christian Saclier is an inspiring Creative Design & Innovation leader with over 25 years of experience in various industries, including Pharmaceuticals and Food & Beverages. Currently, he serves as the Vice President of Design Innovation at PepsiCo, where he employs a forward-thinking approach to discover growth opportunities and enhance PepsiCo's global portfolio. His main focus is the implementation of innovation through design, resulting in added strategic business value for PepsiCo's global brands and businesses.

Before joining PepsiCo, Christian played a pivotal role in Nestlé's strategic portfolio transformation by designing, implementing, and deploying best practices from concept to launch. He has also held packaging and innovation positions at Roche and Novartis, leading projects throughout the entire value chain from R&D to Operations to Marketing.

Christian holds a B.S. and M.S. from ITECH/University of Lyon, as well as certificates from the IIT Institute of Design and IMD Business School. He is a board member of PEP13, PepsiCo's partnership with M13 start-up incubator. Additionally, he is a respected guest lecturer at highly-ranked MBA and Design schools worldwide, and an associate professor of Innovation & Design Strategy at the prestigious Art Center College of Design. He holds over 15 patents and regularly publishes on new tools and methodologies in design and innovation.

• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams through strategic planning and creative execution, resulting in successful market launches

• Spearheaded stakeholder engagement initiatives, ensuring effective communication and collaboration with senior leadership, external partners, and internal teams to drive the successful launch of innovation-driven products,

• Entrepreneurial mindset, with a drive to optimize processes, structures, and partnerships through innovative thinking

• Skilled in connecting global networks, with a strong network of Innovation, Design, and Technology partners

• Expert in defining and implementing best practices for the Front End of Innovation, enhancing internal capabilities

• Experienced in facilitating over 100 Ideation & Prototyping sessions, leading to the successful launch of new products, packaging, and innovative services across brands, categories, and regions

• Successfully established Sustainability programs in R&D and led a team of LCA experts to integrate sustainability into the Innovation & Renovation process

• Improved R&D pipeline output through the creation of an interface function between Manufacturing, Marketing and R&D, balancing cost, timing, and quality

• Implemented cost-saving initiatives, resulting in savings achieved through price negotiation, supplier base reduction, and specifications optimization

• Managed large-scale manufacturing projects in support of "Make vs. Buy" strategies.

 PEPSICO, New York City (USA), $90 Billion Sales, 290’000 employees

March 2020 to date: Vice President Design Innovation, Global Design & Innovation 

Responsibilities: Identify growth opportunities and deliver design strategies and compelling experiences (brand, product, packaging, system, service, retail, merchandising, digital) that add strategic business value to PepsiCo’s Global brands and businesses, to help it grow and transform beyond its core. Challenge and seek to change how PepsiCo works to drive business innovation by defining, prototyping, learning and launching strategically aligned and commercially viable new products, services, retail experiences, brands and systems. Spearhead stakeholder engagement initiatives, ensuring effective communication and collaboration with senior leadership, external partners, and internal teams to drive the successful launch of innovation-driven products.

NESTLE, Vevey (CH), $90 Billion Sales, 280’000 employees

July 2008-March 2020: Global Head of Design Thinking (Product, Systems & Digital Innovation) – Nestlé HQ & Nestlé Research Accelerator

Responsibilities: Powering growth and renewal, supporting the group’s Business Excellence strategy by establishing Front-end best practices and Design capabilities on a global basis to help markets win. Translating Science discoveries & disruptive technologies into consumer experience, and accelerate the exit to business of new concepts, gaining in impact and speed of implementation through Design.

NOVARTIS, OTC BU, Parsippany (NJ, USA), $2.8 Billion Sales, 4’500 employees

March 2000-July 2008: Global Head Packaging Innovation – Global Marketing & Global Operations

Responsibilities: Leveraged Packaging Design as a competitive advantage, identifying new technologies to match key consumer insights; optimizing trade-offs between innovation, cost and time to market. Created the interface function between R&D, Marketing and Manufacturing to accelerate and optimize pipeline output. Led cross-functional teams representing Purchasing, Manufacturing and Logistics.

ROCHE, Consumer Health Division, Gaillard (F), $1.8 Billion sales, 3’500 employees

July 1996-March 2000: International Packaging Development Manager – Global R&D

Responsibilities: Headed packaging development activities and pilot production unit. Initiated innovation and improvement projects to energize the product portfolio.