Bio

PepsiCo is an American corporation with revenues of $86.4 billion U.S. dollars and 290,000+ employees. It is the second largest food and beverage company in the world, and the largest in North America. PepsiCo brands are available in 200+ countries; 22 of these brands each generate $1 billion or more in annual retail sales. The mission of DESIGN at PepsiCo is one of building the most relevant and beautiful BRAND STORIES across touchpoints and regions of the world and the one of imagining and creating meaningful and INNOVATIVE products leveraging design thinking and design tools with a human-centered approach. Mauro Porcini is PepsiCo’s first ever Chief Design Officer. He joined the food & beverage corporation in 2012 and in said role he is infusing design thinking into PepsiCo’s culture and is leading a new approach to innovation by design that impacts the company’s product platforms and brands, which include Pepsi, Lay’s, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Sodastream, Doritos, Lifewtr, bubly, Aquafina, Cheetos, Quaker, 7Up, Mirinda, amongst many others, as well as new platforms such as Beyond the Bottle (sustainable, drinks personalization enabled by tech) or Beyond Film (the future of food packaging), just to mention a couple. His focus extends from physical to virtual expressions of the brands, including product, packaging, events, advertising, fashion and art collaborations, retail activation, architecture, and digital media. He leads teams based in 15 cities in every continent of the world. Since its creation, the PepsiCo Design function led by Mauro has been recognized with more than 1,700 design and innovation awards. And over the years Mauro has been recognized with several personal awards, including Fortune’s 40 under 40, Fast Company 50 Most Influential Designers in USA, Master of Design, Most Creative People in Business, GQ 30 Best Dressed Men, amongst many others. In 2018, the President of the Italian Republic recognized him with one of his proudest achievements, the Knighthood (Cavaliere). He is the author of “The Human Side of Innovation” (English + other languages available soon) and “L’età dell’eccellenza” (Italian). Prior to joining PepsiCo, Mauro served as the first ever Chief Design Officer at 3M. Currently he is the President of the Politecnico of Milan Foundation in the United States (Fellows of Politecnico), sits on the board of directors of the Design Management Institute, and on the advisory council of other design, art, innovation and business institutions.