Bio
Chris Flink, a partner at IDEO and consulting associate professor at Stanford University, considers innovation a team sport and dives into interdisciplinary challenges with generative optimism and a balanced, strategic perspective.
In his 16+ years with IDEO, Chris has played a variety of roles, from heading the firm’s Consumer Experience Design practice to co-founding its New York office. He’s led diverse programs in collaboration with such clients as Target, Apple, JetBlue, Citrix, Bridgewater, and P&G.
Today, he continues to thrive at the intersection of inspired design, business, and people. He leads a community of extraordinary designers and a set of key client relationships, guiding portfolios of innovation projects in retail, technology, consumer products and organizational change.
Chris teaches at Stanford University with adjunct appointments from both the Graduate School of Business and the School of Engineering – the same institutions that granted him degrees and helped inform his ever-expanding view of what it means to be a designer. Since 1999, he’s taught a range of courses on human-centered innovation and most recently co-created popular Org Design and Social Brands courses. He’s one of the founding faculty members of the d.school, a renowned institute for design at Stanford that he helps lead. He’s also delivered guest lectures at Wharton and Columbia business schools, and presented at TEDx as well as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Chris joined the Board of Directors of Fiserv (NASDAQ: FISV) in 2012, and then the Board of Directors of E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) in 2013. He also contributes on advisory boards for Target, IDEO.org, and JetBlue.