Business Leader Luncheon with IDEO and David Cremin

Chris Waugh is a director and co-founder of IDEO’s Food & Beverage practice, and a lead in the Consumer Experience Design business community. In both of these roles, Chris is focused on using design thinking as a means of creating positive impact for IDEO’s clients, their customers, and consumers.

F&B at IDEO looks to people’s unmet needs, desires, and aspirations to tackle a wide variety of design and innovation challenges, from designing the next $100M product platform to creating weight management strategies for consumers. Chris enriches the F&B practice with his passion for understanding how the intersection of social issues, systems, and food can help our clients create better offerings—and help consumers live better. He is a firm believer in the premise that what is good for business can be good for people, and vice-versa.

In addition to leading relationships with businesses and organizations such as Nestle, Campbell’s, and the Centers for Disease Control, Chris has guided the evolution of thought within F&B at IDEO by authoring points of view on wellness, obesity, and behavior change.

Before joining IDEO, Chris worked in marketing and product innovation for Specialized Bicycles. He represented the “voice of the market” on a variety of industry-leading projects, including development of technical shoes, concept shops, and integration of medical design into ergonomic consumer products.

Chris is a competitive cyclist, tri-athlete, and volunteer coach for Team in Training, a group that raises money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by training people for marathons, triathlons, and 100-mile bike rides. When he’s not in the office, you might find Chris swimming between Alcatraz and San Francisco.

Bryan Yuji Walker is a Practice Lead at IDEO, the global design and innovation firm. He leads a group responsible for helping clients with large scale social change challenges that require a systemic solution. The work spans the private, public and social sectors.

During his time at IDEO Bryan has envisioned the future of banking with Bank of America; challenged the hotel lobby paradigm with Marriott; and explored what localism means for Nike. Bryan draws from his studies in anthropology and his experience in brand strategy to identify and act upon the small insights that have potential for big impact.

Bryan is the global relationship lead for both Nike and Bank of America, acting as a bridge between the client and the project team throughout the innovation process. His designs have been featured in BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal and exhibited in the Smithsonian. He speaks regularly at various universities and conferences.

Bryan holds a BS in Human Factors from Cornell University and a MS in Social Anthropology from Oxford University, where his dissertation explored the anthropological significance of innovation. Outside of work he can be found exploring the California coastline or battling his aging Victorian home. 

David Cremin is a founder and Managing Director of DFJ Frontier, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson venture capital fund focused on seed and early stage technology companies on the west coast. At Frontier, he leads fund management, fundraising and portfolio management efforts. Prior to Frontier, he was a founding partner of Zone Ventures in Los Angeles. As an entrepreneur, he served as founder and CEO of Vis-à-Vis Entertainment, a music publishing and digital media company. He also spent several years touring as a professional musician and recording for RCA Records, Atlantic Records, Elektra Records and EastWest Records. He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.