Diana Colella
Autodesk announced on October 6 that Diana Colella will be the new executive vice president of the architecture, engineering and construction business unit of the San Francisco software giant.
Colella succeeds Amy Bunszel, who announced her retirement in August and will remain at Autodesk until Nov. 2 to support the transition.
Colella will lead Autodesk’s largest industry business as the company enters a new phase of what it says is AEC growth, powered by Autodesk Forma, the company’s industry cloud for AEC that connects data, context and design and construction workflows. Like Bunszel, Colella will be expected to lead the fusion of Autodesk’s artificial intelligence and project intelligence efforts across the AEC project lifecycle.
Autodesk said in its announcement that Colella, the latest head of the company’s media and entertainment division and with nearly three decades at Autodesk, will work to advance Forma’s strategy while continuing to evolve Autodesk desktop products such as Revit and Civil 3D and connect them more closely with Forma’s workflows.
In an internal email to all employees, Autodesk CEO and President Andrew Anagnost said: “Diana is also an internal disruptor and challenger who is willing to question how we’ve always done things while staying close to customers. In M&E, she revamped a portfolio of standalone products into a connected platform strategy through Flow. [Autodesk’s cloud platform for the media and entertainment industries].”
Colella joined Autodesk more than 29 years ago through the acquisition of Discreet Logic and has since held leadership roles, including leading Autodesk’s AutoCAD business and helping to launch One AutoCAD. She also previously worked at KPMG, is a certified public accountant and holds a master’s degree from McGill University. She is known for communicating openly with customers through Autodesk’s regular sales channels, but also at public events such as her annual Autodesk University user conference.
Anagnost said in his company email that Colella’s mandate is to accelerate the incorporation of AI into critical workflows and strengthen the execution of these integrations throughout the AEC lifecycle.
“Our customers are being asked to deliver more as they navigate increased complexity, persistent resource constraints and rapid technological change,” Colella said in a statement. “My priority is to listen to them, build on the strong foundation that Amy and the team have built, and make sure that the work we’re doing at Forma and AI translates into meaningful improvements in the way projects are designed, built and operated.”
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