Diana Colella to Lead Autodesk’s AEC Division, Promising Deeper AI Integrations

Colella will lead Autodesk’s largest industry business as the company enters a new phase of what it says is growth in AEC, driven by Autodesk Forma, the company’s industry cloud for AEC that connects data, context and design and construction workflows. Like Bunszel, Colella will have to shepherd the fusion of Autodesk’s artificial intelligence and project intelligence efforts into the AEC project lifecycle.

Autodesk said in its announcement that Colella, most recently the head of the company’s media and entertainment division and with nearly three decades at Autodesk, will work to advance the Forma strategy while continuing to evolve Autodesk’s desktop products such as Revit and Civil 3D and connect them more closely to Forma 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 via the acquisition of Discreet Logic and has since held leadership roles including leading Autodesk’s AutoCAD business and helping launch One AutoCAD. She also previously worked for KPMG, is a certified public accountant and holds a master’s degree from McGill University. She is known for openly communicating with customers through Autodesk’s regular sales channels but also at public events such as its annual Autodesk University user conference.

Anagnost said in his company email that Colella’s mandate is to accelerate the embedding of AI in critical workflows and strengthen the execution of those integrations across the full AEC lifecycle.

“Our customers are being asked to deliver more while navigating greater 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 Amy and the team have created, and make sure the work we’re doing across Forma and AI translates into meaningful improvements in how projects are designed, built and operated.”