20-years experience in FMCG industry with specialty in packaging and engineering; work experience in Coca-Cola, Aptar, PepsiCo, Danone, and Robust. Used have taken the position of R&D director Packaging Development, Custom engineering director, Associate R&D director facility management, Associate R&D director packaging development, Package manager, Engineering manager, Environment manager, and Production line manager etc in these companies.

Currently serves as Head of Design and Innovation for Gatorade

He joins Gatorade in February 2011; in his Gatorade role, Xavi is in charge of leading and creating the vision and development of Gatorade and Propel Innovation and their expansion into technology platforms. Xavi leads also the Brand Design team in the transformation of the brand towards a Global Sports Nutrition Brand across the different consumer touch points including retail theater, retail POS, packaging, build-outs, etc

Xavi was born in Barcelona where he earned a degree in Architecture. He has a strong sports performance and design background stemming from his 11 years of experience with Nike. His last job leading Nike Retail in Brazil where he developed the Retail Strategy towards 2016 Olympics and 2014 World Cup. Previously Xavi also led Nike’s Retail Team in Mexico and Spain. Before joining Nike, Xavi spent two years in Mango as an Architect designing stores around the globe

Lingli Sun, Sr. Packaging & Design Manager role, joined Mars R&D in 2009 as a senior packaging scientist. She has over 14 years of experience working in the functional area of packaging, which has enabled her to gain rich experience in packaging innovation and packaging industrial understanding.

After studying international marketing in Paris, Berkeley and Tokyo and completing a design degree of interior and product Design at the Domus Academy in Milan, Christophe continued his globetrotting life by moving to Asia to begin his professional career as a Brand Design Manager.

At the end of 2000 in Paris, Christophe founded a global design entity on the in innovative industries market that he created BETC Design. Today, Christophe develops his brand experience through a holistic approach that combines the social sciences and a global creative strategy. By drawing on all the different specialisms of the design industry, he focus his reflection through the brand Rituals (products/services/places).

Somchana Kangwarnjit graduated from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang with a degree in industrial design. In 2009, he founded Prompt Design, helping his clients to build brands and businesses by delivering new experiences in strategies and design executions. Prompt Design’s have more than 100 clients include Nestlé, CP, Singha, Lotte, Meiji, Pfizer, FrieslandCampina, Glico Ice Cream, Okamoto, Food Empire, Diageo Moet Hennessy etc.

He is regularly invited to be a committee or jury member for international design competitions (PENTAWARDS, Core77 Design Award, Asia Student Package Design Competition (ASPAC), Dremel Design Award, DEmark, SME Award etc.) and often serves as a guest columnist, guest celebrity designer and professor for many publishers, corporate and top universities. His works have been acclaimed internationally, winning numerous global awards: PENTAWARDS PLATINUM, The Dieline Awards First Place, Red Dot Design Award, German Design Awards, FAB Awards, Spark Awards, Communicator Awards  etc.

Somchana is Board member of Thai Graphic Design Association (ThaiGa). He is invited to be a keynote speaker at the TEDx ChiangMai. And his next challenge is President of the Thai Package Design Association (ThaiPDA). Somchana furthermore is an active member of the EPDA (European Packaging Design Association).

René is forever looking for new ways of doing things. She embraces change and encourages experimentation. She believes that making mistakes is part and parcel of design while routine and established methods are barriers to true creativity. René is an excellent communicator because she values listening as much as talking. She also believes in building a strong team and is pivotal in developing her own for JKR Shanghai, as she has been with many of her previous work places.

Starting in Toronto then heading to Hong Kong, René has accumulated over 20 years of professional experience in the industry. In 2007, René took on a new direction by relocating to Shanghai to continue her pursuit in the design profession.

A native from Hong Kong, René left for overseas in her early teens and has studied and lived in the UK, USA, Canada and Italy at different times. René obtained her first Diploma in Graphic Design from Sheridan College Canada. She also holds a Masters Degree of Arts in Design from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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René is passionate about public speaking. She is often invited to give speeches in creativity festivals and design institutes, inspiring fellow colleagues in the creative industry and the next generation. These events include Cannes Lions, Spikes Asia, FBIF etc.

Current Vice President of The Creative Centre and Principal of KK Studio at ShenZhen Oracle Creative Design Co., Ltd.

Grant Li, founder of L3branding, who has been focusing on brand experience design for many years, solving practical problems and change the competitive landscape for international and domestic brands to Co-brands include: Coca-Cola, NBA, mead Johnson, COFCO, Mengniu Dairy, Uni-President and so on. He won numerous international Awards and recognition, including Pentawards Gold Prize, IF Awards, One Show-Excellent Award, Japan's Top Allow Asia, Hiiibrand, Graphic Design in China, and so on. The works have been published in the Wall Street Journal and other international media, such as the exhibition in American and Spain.

Sophia Nadur works for organizations and/or their advisors across the globe that need help with developing better food & drink portfolios and/or nudging consumer attitude/behavior change in relation to what they put into their bodies day after day.

She has more than 20 years’ global marketing & innovation experience with Coca-Cola, Mars, Unilever, and Kraft/Mondelez, where she developed and led complex marketing activities and NPD across multiple food & drink categories in Europe, China, the USA, and Latin America. She is also a qualified lawyer and, more lately, the co-founder of a London-based beverage startup that has developed a unique range of Middle Kingdom inspired "better for you" beverages (www.drinktg.com) that will support the growth of an emerging drinks’ category in the UK, Europe, China, the US and elsewhere!

Sophia holds a BSc degree in Physiology from McGill University, a LLB law degree from the University of London, and an MBA from Warwick Business School. She is a mentor to numerous entrepreneurs and business managers through WBS and the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business. You can contact her via Linkedin https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sophianadur, via WeChat snadur, or Twitter @sophia_isa.

A well-known industrial designer

The co-founder and CEO of Hot Design

15 years of project design experience, led the team in serving Motorola, GE in the US, Belkin, Electrolux, Nongfu Spring, Junlebao, Zhongxing Communication, and Super among other well-known international and national famous enterprises.

Winner of top awards at home and abroad such as Red Dot Design Award、IF Design Award、Pentawards, China Red Star Design Award, and Successful Design Award

Top 100 Chinese Youth Designer of the Ministry of Culture

Nominee of Top Ten Outstanding Youths of Chinese Industrial Design by Dragon Design Foundation

Director of China Industrial Design Association

Director of Zhejiang Provincial Industrial Design Association

Top Ten Industrial Designers in Zhejiang

Ten Elites of Industrial Design in Hangzhou

Since 2003, Joan Josep Bertran has run his own studio mainly catering identity and packaging design for wine cellars and other beverages.

The studio has had clients across Spain and in other countries of Europe, the Middle East, South Africa and latin America.

He established his practice in Barcelona as an independent graphic designer upon returning from Sydney, Australia, where he went to work for Feeder Studio. Before, he had joined Springer&Jacoby in Barcelona where he worked as a designer and an art director for Mercedes-Benz Spain. His first professional steps were done at Villuendas+Gómez, where he gained experience on identity and design for culture oriented clients.

He has been awarded different international and national prizes both in advertising and design through his career, his work featured on books on packaging globally and has been selected jury for design awards.

Hernán Braberman is Partner and Executive Design Director of Tridimage, the leading 3d branding, graphic and structural packaging design agency in Latin America. Its creative headquarters are in Buenos Aires and it has account directors in Mexico, Ecuador and Guatemala.

In 1995 Hernán´s passion led him to found Tridimage. Since then, he has not stopped creating and renewing brands throughout Latin America and Europe, achieving a positive impact on consumers, the market and society.

Tridimage's reputation attracts the attention of both established and emerging companies operating in Latin America, USA and Europe. Tridimage has worked for more than 30 countries in the world.

His projects have been awarded six Pentawards, Vertex Awards, A' Design Awards, Ameristar, Good Design Seal, POPAI, Estrella del Sur and Pack Andina awards.
His work as a designer continues to take him around the world, sharing his experience and knowledge with all those who recognize the unlimited power of design.

Having graduated from the Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts in 2004, Stepan Azaryan quickly paved his way and soon became one of the leading designers in Armenia and got a wide recognition out of the borders of the country. While studying at the Academy, Stepan Azaryan worked intensively and in his third year created his debut project inspired by the notion of biomimicry, thus bringing an innovative approach to looking at the surrounding world. This concept was duly credited and acknowledged and was put into a wide use.

In 2004 he started working as a graphic designer in Armenian leading design agency PrintInfo.

In 2008 Stepan started his freelance experience, and the same year he received the first prize in the China Best Foreign Stamp Annual Poll for the Best Stamp Design.

Stepan` s quest for the most irrational and the ground-breaking finally resulted in founding a creative design studio, “Backbone Branding”. Besides a successful cooperation with local producers, he led Backbone Branding to an international framework. And not only his company: a local beverage producer started to export its products as a result of the cooperation with Backbone Branding. Among the clientele, there are also businessmen from Russia, UAE, among which is world famous football player, Diego Armando Madonna as a co-owner in Cafe diego projet developed by Backbone Branding.

Among other highly prestigious international awards, Backbone Branding received highly acclaimed Pentawards, The Dieline, Golden Drum, Golden Hammer, KIAF and others, the total number of awards reaching 35.

Stepan Azaryan was invited to represent Armenia in a number of festival juries, such as 2012 Popok 3 International Advertising Festival, 2013 Kyiv International Advertising Festival and 2015Ad Black Sea International Advertising Festival.

Stepan Azaryan, representing Backbone Branding, participated in the prestigious 9th Pentawards Trophy Ceremony 2015 in London and in the 10th official Pentawards Trophy Ceremony 2016 in Shanghai, being the only representative from Armenia.

Having a diverse and fascinating experience and a big desire to share it, Stepan organizes and participates in master classes, conducts talks about design tendencies, international market and more, meets professionals, inspires the beginners and is full of ideas of reconstructing and innovating the notion of design in Armenia. He is also a member of a team, which mission is creating innovative products from Armenia to international market and developing them with the help of crowd funding platforms.

Over 25 years of  Advertising and Branding experience in China & APAC. A result-oriented professional from Singapore with proven track record of leading  international clients such as Virgin Atlantic, Pernod Ricard, LVMH, Bacardi and Sands Macao Cotai.

Held leadership role in China at advertising agencies such as  Ogilvy & Mather, Y&R and Saatchi & Saatchi since relocating to Shanghai in 2007.

Gary’s strong interpersonal skills, cultural sensitivity and fluent Cantonese and Mandarin enable him to lead local teams to global-standard operations and is a recognized expert on brand localization and international marketing implementation.

Benton Sauer, Vice President Managing Director/Executive Creative Director LPK Asia, is responsible for leading our multi-national team and efforts in Singapore and Guangzhou, China. With more than twenty years experience of FMCG industry about brand strategy, innovation and design, his customers are including : Kellogg Kellogg's, Jim Beam, Pringles Pringles, Hershey 's good, Ocean Spray and so on.

Ben has a talent for channeling his energy and entrepreneurial prowess for clients across a wide range of categories. As the managing director for one of LPK’s core regional business units, Ben creative capacity is matched by an innate understanding of business strategy. For over two decades, he has provided senior leadership and creative direction for clients spanning a diverse range of industries.

Ben has lead LPK’s innovation practice, and created LPK Innoventures® Ideation, a holistic innovation process that delivers new brand ideas, fills brand pipelines and builds business. His experiential approach to idea generation is inclusive of clients and centered in interdisciplinary co-creation as a key factor leading to actionoriented results and increased probability for initiative success. It also fosters the kind of intimacy that nurtures organic client relationships, and Ben has helped LPK grow its existing portfolio of clients, in addition to developing a range of new client relationships. Ben has taught at the University of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky University and frequently lectures on brand design, innovation and creativity training. He holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP).

Lina joined Wrigley APAC R&D Sensory in 2012 with prior work experience in Unilever global R&D Center as consumer technical insight and claim manager. And since then, she has continuously driven deep consumer experience insights, supporting successful innovation, renovation and productivity initiatives for global and regional scale brands, including EXTRA gum renovation, soft chew gum innovation for FIVE and DOUBLEMINT etc. Lina also extended his role to design since 2015. Partnering with cross-functional teams, she successfully led project for gum category pipeline generation in China by leveraging strategic design thinking. She also led many package/product design projects for chocolate, gum and fruity confection.

Pang Wenyan graduated from the Design Department of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts in 1996. In 2002. she founded Shanghai Qinwei Graphic Design Co., Ltd. and has been the General manager since then. The company focuses on the branding and packaging design of fast consumer goods, and has long and close cooperation with many international and local famous brands.

Social Duties：

National Committee member of Design Committee of the China Packaging

Director of Shanghai Packaging Technology Association

Deputy Secretary General of the Design Committee of Shanghai Packaging Technology Association

Brand Collaboration Center of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts.  Executive Director. Postgraduate Tutor.

Visiting professor of Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai Normal University

Expert of Shanghai YF Vocational & Polytechnic school

Members of China Vocational Education Association

Mark is recognized expert in Industrial Design and Brand Management. He directs and manages Industrial Design in LUNAR’s Chicago office and is part of the Senior Leadership team for the company. A frequent contributor to Fast Company magazine, Mark is also responsible for Numerous Design patents (100+) and has won many awards in Design over a 20 plus year career including Red Dot, IDEA Gold and ID Magazine Best of Category. He is a past president of IDSA, the Industrial Designers Society of America and is the current Editor of Innovation Magazine for IDSA as well. He is an adjunct Professor at both the Kellogg School and the McCormick School of Engineering for 6 weeks every year, teaching classes in Design Thinking.

At LUNAR, Mark specializes in consumer product work with a special focus on beauty and retail. He spent over 14 years on the Real Beauty Campaign for Dove/Unilever and introduced products, packages and environments for various other beauty brands including Bergdorf Goodman, Kao/Jergens, John Frieda and L’Oreal, to name a few.  He also leads teams to serve  top CPG clients such as Danone, Wrigley, and other Unilever brands and products in FMCG. Mark also specializes in LUNAR’s unique “Innovation Garage” method for various companies in these spaces.

Mark lives in Winnetka, Illinois with his wife and three daughters, just around the corner from the “Home Alone” house.