Veni Iozzo is a transformational leader with more than three decades of financial services experience spanning distribution, product management, marketing, communications, public affairs, workplace transformation, and real estate. She is a strategic, agile, and innovative leader who balances short- and long-term goals while driving performance and growth. A global executive, Veni has led significant enterprise-level initiatives, including leadership of the design, build, and consolidation of a new global corporate headquarters and of a client segmentation strategy that effectively transformed the banking center operating model to better serve the needs of clients through a high tech and high touch value proposition. She is an experienced internal and not-for-profit director, and collaborative leader prepared to make an immediate impact on a private or public company board.
Veni has spent over 30 years with CIBC, a leading North American Bank, where she worked across retail banking, wealth management, business banking, and corporate office portfolios. She built a reputation as a results-driven and engaging leader who excels when presented with some of the most complex and transformational business challenges. Throughout her career, she was presented with a diverse set of roles of increasing responsibility and has had several notable successes. Most recently, as lead tenant, Veni was responsible for designing, building, and moving to CIBC Square, one of North America’s largest commercial real estate builds. Building plans for CIBC Square were interrupted during the pandemic and required intricate planning and coordination to complete the project and welcome CIBC clients and 16,500 colleagues. In addition, she leads the enterprise real estate portfolio of more than 1,000 retail centers and 165 international corporate office locations globally while commencing the build of CIBC Square North, which will complete the campus with the consolidation of an additional 9,000 colleagues. Veni continues to be responsible for providing strategic leadership in CIBC’s global workplace transformation, including envisioning forward-thinking technology-enabled environments to create a purpose-driven, client-focused culture.
Before her current role, Veni led the design and implementation of CIBC’s brand, purpose, and marketing strategies and overhauled CIBC’s communication approach to amplify its voice across various mediums and constituents, including media and government
relations. Prior to that, she was selected to lead CIBC’s client segmentation strategy, which included self-serve and wealth management platforms. She also previously led CIBC’s significant residential mortgage, secured, and unsecured lending portfolios, demonstrating strong growth. Additionally, she led the core banking deposit P&L, where she accelerated revenue and deposit growth by developing an industry-leading account product that was the first of its structure in the Canadian market.
Veni is a passionate champion of inclusivity and diversity. She serves as Vice-Chair on the Trillium Health Partners Foundation Board, one of Canada’s most extensive community-based healthcare facilities. She is a founding member of The Prosperity Project, whose mission is to mitigate the economic impact on women from COVID-19. At CIBC, Veni previously served on the bank’s Mortgage & Lending Board.
Veni has an MBA from Royal Roads and has completed the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program (ICD.D). She has received the extraordinary distinction of being inducted into the WXN Hall of Fame of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100.
