Cultivating Tomorrow’s Food Systems
Our Mission
FutureTable advises changemakers driving transformative action on climate and food systems
Our Services
FutureTable partners with leaders shaping the future of food and ecological systems. We bring strategic clarity, collaborative design, and deep insight to help our clients turn bold ideas into lasting impact.
Strategy & Systems Change
We work with clients to set direction, align leadership, and design strategies that enable real-world change. Our approach helps boards and teams connect purpose to action and navigate complexity with clarity.
Innovation & Initiative Design
We bring design thinking and innovative approaches to help clients unleash creativity and prototype bold ideas. From there, we help envision and launch new initiatives, organizations, and ventures that turn those ideas into reality.
Ecosystem & Community Building
We convene diverse actors across business, philanthropy, policy, and civil society to build trust, shared vision, and collective action. We nurture communities of belonging and help partners move from dialogue to action, tackling audacious systems challenges through creative collaboration.
Insight & Learning
We distill evidence and experience into actionable insights that inform strategy and policy. Through tailored learning processes, we help organizations understand, adapt, share and scale what works.
Our Clients
We partner with a broad range of clients because real transformation takes collective action. Working at the intersections where diverse actors and ideas meet, we help leaders advance their goals through cross-sector insight, holistic thinking, and actions that drive change within their work and beyond.
We work with:
Businesses: Social enterprises and impact-oriented teams within large food, agriculture and technology companies
Funders: Philanthropies, family offices, and impact investors
Nonprofits & Academia: International organizations, civil society groups, and universities
Select Projects
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Stanford University
Supported design and strategy for a new enterprise, Food Systems for the Future, addressing malnutrition for poor & underserved communities through market-based solutions.
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Google
As a member of the Google Food Lab, guided a collaborative process to refine the Lab’s strategic direction toward its “foodshots,” aligning innovation efforts with Google’s broader vision for the future of food.
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Mars Inc.
Supported the sustainability and sourcing teams with guidelines and diagnostic tools to increase farmer income in the company’s global supply chains.
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ReFED
Advised on stakeholder engagement strategy for a new Advisory Council to pursue impact at scale on food waste.
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United Nations
Designed and managed a global competition for Small and Medium Enterprises leading into the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit.
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Blue Climate Initiative
Co-created an organization focused on ocean-based solutions for the climate crisis, with contributions including strategic visioning, incentive prize design and implementation, and co-authorship of a book, Transformational Opportunities for People, Ocean and Planet.
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Generation Africa
Co-led visioning and implementation of a multi-year partnership initiative to strengthen the ecosystem for agri-food entrepreneurship across Africa.
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XPRIZE Foundation
Served as Lead Advisor on breakthroughs for the future of food systems, as conveyed in an Impact Roadmap, and serving as a stimulus to innovation prize design.
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EIT Food
Provided input on strategic priorities for the European Knowledge and Innovation Community.
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Wasafiri
Articulated a signature systems change framework, Systemcraft, for tackling complex challenges.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Co-developed a strategic framework and partnerships portfolio for the agricultural vertical of Tech Impact 2030, which puts technology to work to solve social challenges.
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TechnoServe
Collaborated with TechnoServe, with Gates Foundation support, to synthesize lessons from the NutriSave initiative in Kenya, advancing global understanding of how reducing food loss can deliver nutrition, climate, and business benefits.
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World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Served as a writer for the COVID-19 Vital Supply Chains – Food System Security project as part of the organization’s COVID-19 Response Program.
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Circle of Blue
Served the Executive Director to design strategy and partnerships for Designing Water’s Future.
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Ethical Tea Partnership
Produced an integrative analysis of ETP’s approach across its three “E”s (Economics, Equality, and Environment), offering strategic reflections to amplify systems change and deepen impact in the global tea industry.
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Work on Climate
Designed and facilitated a structured Board of Directors evolution process, integrating best practices in nonprofit governance to clarify roles, enhance accountability, and support organizational growth.
What Clients Are Saying
Who We Are
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Founder and Lead Partner
Lorin Fries has devoted her career to co-creating more regenerative, nutritious, and equitable food systems, with a particular focus at the nexus of food and the planet. Previously, she led the Global Food Systems Collaboration portfolio at the World Economic Forum, forging coalitions across governments, businesses, and civil society on worldwide issues and in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Her prior experience includes management roles at USAID and Save the Children in Uganda. Lorin is a respected thought leader with insights published in outlets such as the Harvard Business Review and Forbes. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a master’s from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Since founding FutureTable, Lorin has co-created a wide array of impactful change initiatives with inspiring clients across the globe, whether building new entities like the Blue Climate Initiative and Food Systems for the Future; shaping vision and strategy with Mars and the XPRIZE Foundation; fostering partnerships for organizations such as ReFED and Hewlett Packard Enterprise; or strengthening innovation ecosystems through Generation Africa and the United Nations. This diversity of experience enables Lorin to bring systems thinking to complex challenges, deliver cross-sector insight and connections, and ground advice in practical approaches. In addition to her formal advisory work, she contributes to multiple boards, communities, prize committees, and volunteer groups. Lorin’s work is deeply rooted in values: she weaves integrity, humility, and respect with ambitious, abundance-minded creativity and action.
Our Values
FutureTable believes the way we do business should reflect the world we’re working to create. As a Certified B Corporation, we hold ourselves to high ethical standards. And we proudly donate at least 5% of our annual revenue to advance social and environmental justice movements.
