Christian Schneider

Global career across industry and academia

Christian Schneider has built an international career across industry and academia in Europe, North America, and Africa. Trained in industrial design, his work has expanded into innovation consulting, entrepreneurship, executive education, and strategic advisory. He has held executive leadership, senior institutional governance, and advisory roles.

Building design and innovation consultancies

Christian began his career in Milan at Studio De Lucchi, where he worked within multidisciplinary teams addressing product design, architecture, and industrial development for international clients.

He later joined IDEO, contributing to the expansion of its innovation practice and working with global companies across telecommunications, consumer products, and mobility. His focus spanned product and service innovation, interaction design, and emerging digital technologies. He established new offices in Europe and directed operations in Italy.

Entrepreneurship and leadership in complex emergencies

After his consulting experiences in western economies he co-founded and developed an organization providing humanitarian air services in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Building and operating the organization required leadership across complex cultural, operational, and regulatory environments, further broadening his global perspective on organizations and systems.

The organization was established with a local workforce and co-leadership model and was successfully transitioned to full local ownership after four years.

Building academic institutions and programs

From 2011 to 2022, Christian Schneider served as Associate Professor for Strategic Management at Parsons in New York. He led the development of the BBA and MS-SDM programs, and contributed to Parsons’ emergence as a globally recognized institution in design and strategic innovation.

His work focused on connecting design education with industry practice and on shaping learning environments that integrate strategic thinking, innovation methods, and real-world implementation.

He held senior institutional governance roles at Parsons and The New School.

He was appointed to visiting professorships at Carleton University in Ottawa, Zeppelin University, and HfG Pforzheim, as well as collaborations and contributions at the Art Center, Politecnico di Milano, Stanford, and others

Strategic advisory and innovation leadership

More recently he has held executive roles where he contributed to the development of new innovation and ESG offerings while supporting the integration and growth of teams following mergers and acquisitions.

Today he works globally as an advisor to companies and institutions on strategy, innovation, leadership and organizational development, focusing on challenges and opportunities in digital transformation, Ai, and ESG.

Clients, Publications & Awards

Clients for comprehensive innovation consulting programs include Ariston, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom, ETF European Technology Fund, EBS Electronic Banking Systems, Ferrari, Fraunhofer Institute, FSB Franz Schneider Brakel, Motorola, Nardi, Ocean, Rheinmetall Mauser, and Siemens.

His publications include contributions to Abitare, BusinessWeek, Domus, Modo, and Vanity Fair, as well as authored work in Bootcamp, Entrepreneur, Educause, Egea, and Maize Magazine. He is the author of the book Papewas – Tales of Cultures, Innovation and Economies.

His work has been recognized with awards including the Compasso d’Oro, JPMA, and Red Dot.