Catia Cesari

CIO at Lohia Family Office

Speaker

For the past 30 years Catia has been relentless in promoting sustainability, whilst transforming and investing in world leading companies such as General Electric, Gucci Group, JAB Luxury, Coty and several private equity firms. Catia’s roles have spanned business development, M&A, and Human Capital executive level positions; she now leverages this unique breadth of experience as an angel investor and as Managing Partner at Volta Circle, where her fundamental mission is to drive more capital towards scalable ventures transforming the most polluting industries.

Catia started off at KPMG before embarking on a decade at General Electric where she became corporate M&A director at GE Energy. Catia's involvement in structuring large, complex deals within Jack Welch’s team, set her up for the position of M&A director at Gucci Group, where she played an instrumental role in its formation - now renamed as Kering. She most notably led the integration of Bottega Veneta and worked alongside Domenico De Sole and Tom Ford to acquire multiple iconic brands such as Boucheron, Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, and Alexander McQueen. Between 2006-2014 Catia went on to become Chief Corporate Development and Human Capital Officer at JAB luxury. This preceded Catia’s more recent role as Executive Committee Member and SVP of Corporate Development at Coty, Inc. Resultantly, Catia has since gone on to serve as a non-executive and advisory board member for several listed companies within the consumer industry.

Today Catia dedicates her time to responsible investing as Managing Partner at the investment firm Volta Circle. Catia co-founded Volta in 2019 alongside the Lohia family, who are the majority shareholders in Indorama Ventures (IVL), a $20bn annual revenue chemical corporation and one of the world's largest investors in recycling initiatives. Whilst Volta Circle invests directly as a VC into early-stage climate companies, the firm also invests as an institutional LP into VC funds. Thus far Catia has led more than 25 of Volta Circle’s investments, beginning with global fashion re-commerce leader Vestiaire Collective. Outside of Volta Circle Catia serves as Operating Partner at Tau Investment, whilst also developing her personal portfolio as an angel investor into the circular economy.