Diego Ortiz Vega
Commercial Innovation / ExxonMobil
Diego is a Global Innovator in ExxonMobil where he works with business units inside the corporation defining and testing ideas that lead to new business models responding to unmet customer needs. As part of his job, Diego combines conventional marketing and business development techniques with newer methodologies such as design thinking, agile, and lean startup up to uncover what really matters to customers and ecosystems, creating ideas that solve human problems today and aligned to future trends, and then testing those ideas in the market via prototypes and MVPs. As a former scientist, Diego is a firm believer of hypothesis testing and experimentation in business; in fact, he thinks of business model innovation as “business R&D”. He is currently leading two innovation projects involving mobility and packaging; which are areas he uses to engage with the startup community and the innovation ecosystem.
Before joining ExxonMobil, Diego worked in Customer Development and R&D at a chemicals and materials company. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University that he complements with continuous education on business management, leadership and innovation. Diego is passionate about people, learning, sustainability, innovation, and creating and capturing value at the intersection of human needs and new technology. During his free time, Diego competes in endurance sports nation-wide and enjoys being up to date with the latest trends in digital, markets and technology.