Caio Werneck

Caio Werneck is Community Coordinator at TIAL, where he supports efforts to expand the field of institutional design through projects that stretch collective imagination and strengthen our ability to shape and develop public institutions for contemporary and future challenges. With over 15 years of experience across the public, private, and social sectors, Caio has helped transform public services and institutions throughout Latin America and beyond. He served as a civil servant in Minas Gerais (2010–2016), contributing to multiple waves of state reform, and later co-founded Onda, a spin-off from a research project at the Hertie School that applied design approaches to bridge research and practice in the policy field. As Director of Methods at São Paulo’s public innovation lab (2018–2019), he led organizational design strategies to strengthen the lab’s foundations and co-authored publications such as Life Cycles of Public Innovation Labs, drawing on insights from Latin American practitioners about institutional sustainability. Since 2020, Caio has contributed to advisory work, capacity-building programs, and innovation awards at institutions including Enap, GIZ, UNDP, Motriz, Unit, CPI and the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation, with a focus on fostering inclusive, resilient, and forward-looking public institutions. He studied public policy, management, and design at the Hertie School, Hasso Plattner Institute, and Fundação João Pinheiro.