Professor Carlos Hinrichsen graduated as an industrial designer in Chile in 1982 and earned his master’s degree in Engineering in Japan in 1991. Currently, he is Dean of Faculty of Digital Design and Creative Industries at the Universidad San Sebastian, based in Santiago, Chile. At present, Chile is in transition from an efficiency-based towards an innovation-based economy. In order to achieve this important national goal, the university contributes with initiatives combining applied research, innovation, business, design, digital transformation, technology and engineering.
From 2007 to 2009, Carlos Hinrichsen was President of the World Design Organization (formerly Icsid), and currently serves as a Senator of the organization. In 2010, he was honoured with the distinction “Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland”. From 2014 to 2016, he was Dean of the Faculty of Business, Engineering and Digital Arts at the Gabriela Mistral University in Santiago and from 2016 to 2017, he was the Senior Managing Coordinator of Engineering Design in the School of Engineering in the P. Universidad Católica de Chile. For more than three decades he has led interdisciplinary teams to enable corporations, educational and other institutions to gain leadership and competitive positioning.