Role: Director of Creative & Design Innovation, Head of Product
Scope: Product Strategy, Design Leadership, Technology Translation, Team Scaling
Impact: Built product roadmap from 5+ patent families → Launched multiple market-ready products and brand → Scaled team to 20+ and production to commercial pilot → Raised 12+M

Challenge

The modern packaging industry relies on complex, multi-layered material systems—each layer engineered for a specific barrier property (moisture, oxygen, grease, durability).

This creates a fundamental problem:

  • Materials are difficult to recycle or compost

  • Systems are petroleum-dependent

  • Innovation is fragmented across disconnected technologies

At the same time, brands and manufacturers are facing increasing pressure to adopt:

  • Human-safe materials for food contact

  • Cost-competitive alternatives

  • Scalable, manufacturable solutions

How might we translate emerging bio-based technologies into a cohesive material system that performs, scales, and replaces plastic?

Approach

At TerraSafe, the core opportunity wasn’t a single product—it was an IP portfolio.

I led the translation of 5+ patent families into a cohesive design and product strategy, reframing the portfolio as a modular material system rather than isolated technologies.

Integrating Design Thinking into Technology Translation

1. Translate Technology → Use Cases

  • Mapped IP capabilities to real-world packaging needs

  • Identified gaps where bio-based materials could outperform plastics

  • Defined application-specific performance criteria

4. Build a Scalable Product Roadmap

  • Structured portfolio into:

    • Near-term market-ready products

    • Mid-term platform expansions

    • Long-term innovation opportunities

Compact Plastic-Free Detergent Sheets

Edible, Dissolving Food Pods

Material Design

Pilot Production

Material —> Product Conversion

Partner Pilots and User Testing Kits

Product Portfolio

Piloted, Licensed, and Under Joint Development

Leveraging dissolving packaging IP into cost-competitive, industry-validated applications

Compact Plastic-Free Detergent Sheets

Edible, Dissolving Food Pods

Pulp-Recycling-Compatible Barrier Coatings

Near-Term and Validated

Scaling resin bio-composite towards high-demand, high-impact CPG applications.

Compostable Trays

Heat-Sealable Barrier Films & Coatings

Thermoformable Pellets & Sheets

Images courtesy of TerraSafe Materials INC