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), $92 Billion Sales, 315’000 employees

Chief Innovation Officer - PepsiCo Food Ventures, Geneva (May 2025 to date)

·  New Growth Platforms & Business Creation: Defined and launched a new Food Ventures capability to unlock incremental revenue streams beyond snacking, expanding into meals and hybrid consumption occasions. Building a multi-hundred-million-dollar growth pipeline across new platforms currently in pilot and scale-up phases.

·  Innovation Ecosystems & Strategic Partnerships: Built and orchestrated a next-generation food innovation ecosystem, engaging 20+ external partners including startups, co-manufacturers, and food tech platforms. Established collaboration models reducing concept-to-pilot timelines by ~30%.

·  Cross-Functional Leadership & Capability Building: Lead a 15-person core team across culinary, food science, technology, supply chain, and digital, with broader influence across 50+ cross-functional stakeholders globally. Established new ways of working to integrate innovation, product, and go-to-market.

·  Customer & Channel Development (QSR, AFH, Retail, D2C): Partner with key QSR, Away-From-Home, and retail players to identify white spaces and co-create offerings, initiating multiple pilot partnerships across 3+ channels. Developed early-stage D2C models to test and scale new consumption experiences.

·  AI, Digital & Experience Innovation: Deployed AI-driven tools to accelerate insight generation and concept validation, reducing early-stage testing cycles by ~25% and enabling more targeted consumer engagement.

·  End-to-End Platform Design & Commercialization: Orchestrated the design and execution of several pilot platforms (5+) from concept to market testing, with defined pathways to scale and integration into broader PepsiCo.

Vice President Design Innovation - Global Design & Innovation Center NYC (March 2020 to May 2025)

·  Design-Led Growth & Global Brand Impact: Positioned design as a core business driver, shaping global brand identity, innovation pipelines, and portfolio direction, leading a team of 20 brand strategists and design innovators to deliver a $500M+ pipeline, embedding design upstream in brand and business strategy.

·  End-to-End Design Systems & Innovation Excellence: Designed and scaled an end-to-end innovation model—from white space exploration to fully realized brand and product experiences—enabling consistent yet flexible deployment across markets and consumption occasions, and strengthening design excellence at global scale.

·  Agile Design Operations (Data x Digital x AI): Led an agile squad of 6 designers to build a breakthrough operating model integrating data, digital, and AI into design workflows, reducing time-to-market to <200 days (~30% faster) while increasing creative quality and precision.

·  Design Governance & Cross-Functional Influence: Established design frameworks, guidelines, and ways of working to ensure consistency, scalability, and high creative standards globally. Influenced senior leadership and cross-functional teams (Marketing, R&D, Supply Chain) on high-impact design and innovation decisions.

·  Ecosystems, Partnerships & Future Capabilities: Built and activated external ecosystems—including startups, venture platforms (PEP13), and strategic partners—to expand design and innovation capabilities into new spaces such as health, brain health, and emerging food systems.

NESTLE, Vevey (CH), $93 Billion Sales, 280’000 employees

Global Head of Concept & Prototype Design - Nestlé Research Accelerator (Feb 2018 to Feb 2020)

·  Design-Led Culture & Leadership: Established a design-led culture, accelerating new concept development and business model innovation, ensuring that stakeholder engagement efforts are aligned with business objectives.

·  Start-Up Mentorship & Business Innovation: Coached start-ups, delivering market-ready solutions in under six months. Utilized mentoring, rapid prototyping, business model development, brand and communication techniques.

·  Digital Innovation & Market Testing: Drove digital innovation in personalized nutrition, leveraging external partnerships for market testing. Demonstrated expertise in digital strategy, partnerships, and market analysis.

Global Head of Design Innovation - Nestlé HQ Vevey (Sept 2012 – Jan 2018)

·  Global Innovation Process Transformation: Embedded design thinking across global teams, revolutionizing Nestlé's innovation process. Expertise in design thinking, process transformation, and global collaboration.

·  Cross-Functional Collaboration & Ideation: Led over 100 ideation sessions globally, fostering a cross-functional culture of innovation. Applied skills in collaborative innovation, facilitation, and creative problem-solving.

·  Strategic Innovation & Digital Transformation: Contributed to define the breakthrough R&D strategy for Smart Health and Digital Nutrition to create new business models and consumer engagement experiences.

Global Head of Packaging Science & Innovation, Nestlé Research Center (July 2008 – Aug 2012)

·  Science and Technology: Directed global packaging science program across 12 research axes, achieving significant cost efficiencies. Implemented processes to identify, assess & introduce emerging technologies matching key consumer insights to support business growth

·  Innovation partnerships: Established Innovation Partnerships with 8 technology providers, defined the legal landscape for contractual relationships (Technology provider, Raw material manufacturer, Packaging converter).

·  Sustainability: Championed sustainable packaging design and measurement initiatives. Developed & implemented an LCA based eco-design tool to assess the impact of our I&R pipeline across the group.

¨NOVARTIS, Nyon (CH), $2.8 Billion Sales, 5’000 employees

Global Head of Packaging Design & Innovation, Global Marketing (March 2005 – June 2008)

·  Stakeholder Collaboration & Leadership: Led a cross-functional team to develop a packaging innovation pipeline projected to generate $560M in sales growth. Secured buy-in from senior leadership by aligning innovation with business objectives and drove global collaboration across R&D, marketing, and supply chain

·  Partnerships and Strategic Engagement: Managed external partnerships with top design agencies and technology providers, aligning their efforts with Novartis’ long-term goals. Developed an innovation strategy that balanced cost, time-to-market, and consumer insights.

·  End-to-End Innovation: Directed end-to-end packaging development for Novartis’ global OTC brands, ensuring compliance with international regulations and alignment with brand strategies. Secured capital investments for key initiatives, driving significant cost savings and launching major products of the portfolio.

·  Process Improvement & Operational Efficiency: Led global cost-saving initiatives, achieving $2.5M in annual savings through process reengineering and packaging optimization. Demonstrated capabilities in process optimization, procurement, cost management, and operational efficiency.

Head of Strategic Brand Supply - Innovation Acceleration (March 2002 - Feb 2005)

·  Cross-Functional Leadership and Business development: Created a strategic interface between R&D, Marketing and Manufacturing to accelerate Innovation pipeline output. Managed business development deals, contributing to $80M in annual sales.

·  Strategic Supply Chain Management & Sourcing: Defined global supply chain strategies to support aggressive growth, optimizing processes for new product introductions. Supported make or buy strategies for geographic expansion and sourcing harmonization for key product launches, with increased profitability and efficiency. 

Global Packaging Project Manager (March 2000 - March 2002)

·  Packaging Development & Cost Optimization: Developed innovative packaging solutions across the portfolio, focusing on enhancing product protection and consumer convenience, while reducing costs. Applied technical expertise in packaging engineering, material selection, and structural design resulting in successful launches.

·  Global Standardization & Compliance: Played a key role in standardizing packaging specifications across global markets, ensuring compliance with varying regulatory requirements. Leveraged skills in global project management, compliance, and quality assurance.

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

International Packaging Development Manager (July 1996 – March 2000)

·  Global Collaboration & Efficiency: Spearheaded the harmonization of packaging across Roche’s 10 global strategic brands, collaborating with external suppliers and internal departments. Delivered substantial cost savings through supply chain simplification and standardization, leading to 20% annual savings ($500K).

Stakeholder Engagement: Managed relationships with internal teams, external suppliers, and global purchasing groups, aligning on technical solutions to meet market demands, creating a model for future developments