Craig Sampson

Brainstormer, Connector, Designer, Educator/Teacher, Engineer, Environmentalist, Idea generator, Inventor, Parent

Craig F. Sampson VP, Research Design and Engineering | Chief Innovation Officer World Kitchen In 2007, after 20 years as a design consultant and leader at IDEO, I took the opportunity to jump to the other side of the table, and joined World Kitchen, which is the steward of so many venerable brands like Pyrex and Corningware, These brands are trusted, and ready for innovation, creating an obligation and an opportunity. I love the fact that so many of our products are made of authentic materials like glass, ceramic, steel, and wood. If we do our job well, they will still be useful decades from now, and when they are not, they will return to the cycles of production, or the cycles of the earth, with grace. (warning: Corporate bio to follow!) Craig Sampson was named Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer for World Kitchen, LLC in April, 2007. In this role he provides leadership in innovation across the firm, with a primary responsibility to lead product design and development, delivering superior and distinctive new products which provide growth and a competitive advantage for World Kitchen. Prior to joining World Kitchen, Craig was Global Practice Head at IDEO, one of the world’s leading user-centered design firms. He joined IDEO in its Palo Alto headquarters as a design engineer in 1985 and founded IDEO’s Chicago office in 1990. Before joining IDEO, Craig was a Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and also held technical positions at Hewlett-Packard and Eastman Kodak. Craig is knowledgeable and passionate about the relationship between three domains: human-centered design, applied technology, and business innovation. He believes that great products and services can create compelling user experiences, build brands, produce competitive advantage, and improve lives. As a parent of young twins, Craig feels that the lessons of design – empathy, creativity, experimentation, prototyping, craftsmanship, improvement – are the lessons of life. Craig is a lecturer at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, a trusted advisor to executives seeking growth and innovation in their firms, and an engaging speaker on design and business. Craig holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering - Product Design from Stanford University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering with honors from the University of Colorado. About World Kitchen: World Kitchen and its affiliates manufacture and market bakeware, dinnerware, kitchen and household tools, rangetop cookware and cutlery products sold under well-known and trusted brands including CorningWare®, Pyrex®, CORELLE®, Revere®, EKCO®, Baker’s Secret®, Magnalite®, Chicago Cutlery®, Visions® and OLFA® products. World Kitchen employs approximately 2,900 people, and has major manufacturing and distribution operations in the United States, Canada, and Asia-Pacific regions. It sells products through multiple channels, including mass merchants, department stores, specialty retailers, retail food stores, and World Kitchen websites. For more information, visit www.worldkitchen.com.

balance of opposites: Art and Science, Creative and realistic, Technological and humanistic, Rational and emotional, Divergent and convergent, Career and Family, Serious and fun

Want to design a greener product? Don't just make it biodegradable. Don't just make it recyclable, or made of recycled materials. Don't just make it "less bad" in terms of the resources it consumes or the ingredients it releases to the world. Make it truly useful, extraordinarily durable, and timeless in design. Make it something that will be used again and again and again . . . for decades. Make it last.

1. metaphors. metaphors are like tools that help us take apart engines of ideas. 2. estimating. I'm probably better at estimating than 90% of people. 3. wheelchair limbo.