Vanessa Colella
Vanessa Colella is Citi's Chief Innovation Officer and leads the Citi Ventures and Citi Productivity teams. Vanessa's goal is to accelerate and discover new sources of value by championing innovation so that Citi can compete more effectively in a world of technological, behavioral, and societal change. The Citi Ventures team drives innovation by exploring, incubating, and investing in new ideas and partnering with category-defining startups to help people, businesses and communities thrive. The Citi Productivity team works to transform the employee experience by leveraging the power of process simplification, operating model redesign, and new technologies to help Citi increase efficiency and effectiveness. Before assuming the role of Chief Innovation Officer, Vanessa ran marketing for Citi's North American Consumer Bank. She joined Citibank in 2010 from U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), where she was an entrepreneur-in-residence. Prior to USVP, Vanessa was Head of NA Marketing and then SVP of Insights at Yahoo, where she was responsible for developing and executing the company’s consumer data strategy. She was previously a Partner at McKinsey & Company and a junior high and high school science teacher.
Favorite Quote:
“It has never been done and it can not be done. I told Wilbur that and I told Orville that and I am telling you that.” - Anonymous
Fun fact:
I am the author of a book that featured a flying turtle superhero.
Advice to your 20-year-old self:
“Ask questions! You don’t need to have all the answers, but you do need to know how to get to them. This is true no matter what stage of your career you are in.”
