Itziar Diez-Canedo

Itziar Diez-Canedo is the Co-Founder at Via.work, a digital solutions company. Itziar has over ten years of experience in the financial sector and has held various positions in strategy and business development.

Diez-Canedo started their career as a Financial Analyst at the Inter-American Development Bank. Itziar then transitioned to Cabo Adventures, part of Grupo Adventures, where they served as the International Business Development Manager. In this role, they were responsible for identifying new business opportunities and developing relationships with potential partners.

In 2010, Diez-Canedo joined Citi as the Senior Vice President, Head of Strategy for Citi FinTech Acceleration. In this role, they led strategy for Global Digital Acceleration, which aimed to accelerate how Citi sources, incubates and launches new digital solutions to market globally. Itziar implemented strategy by designing and managing open innovation initiatives, designing new digital business models, and building a global community of partners and startups.

A primary mechanism to engage with the larger FinTech ecosystem is a series of Open Innovation Challenges. So far, Diez-Canedo has engaged with 3.5K startups from 101 countries, reviewed 1.5K prototypes, and showcased 310 of them in 15 Demo Days supported by 150+ strategic partners through 4 programs in Latin America, US, Europe Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific.

Itziar Diez-Canedo has a Master’s Degree in Management for Experienced Leaders with a focus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Itziar also has a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in Economics, International Finance and Marketing from University of Miami Herbert Business School. Additionally, they studied Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).