Daniele Tonella is Chief Technology Officer and a member of ING’s Management Board Banking. Since August 2024, he has been responsible for ING’s global technology landscape and advises the Management Board on technology-driven business opportunities. As he puts it, his role covers almost everything at ING that contains “a chip or a line of code.” He leads a global technology organisation of around 20,000 employees. His responsibilities include the reliability and security of ING’s systems, engineering productivity, the transition to scalable global technology platforms and cloud-native architecture, and innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence. Before joining ING, Daniele was Group Chief Information Officer at UniCredit and CEO of UniCredit Services. Earlier in his career, he led AXA Technology Services, served as Global CIO at Evalueserve, held technology and operations leadership roles at Swiss Life, and worked in consulting at Mercer Management Consulting and McKinsey & Company. Daniele grew up in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland and studied engineering at ETH Zurich. He later completed executive education programmes at Harvard, IMD, INSEAD and MIT Sloan. Daniele is 54, is married, lives in Switzerland and has four children. In this conversation, Daniele discusses what it takes to lead technology at scale, why AI can turn “garbage in, garbage out” into “garbage in, disaster out,” and how ING balances innovation with standardisation, security and resilience. He also reflects on his leadership style, the future of junior engineers, technological sovereignty, introversion, family life and his lifelong desire to build things. Leaders in Finance is made possible by EY, Duna, Mogelijk Vastgoedfinancieringen and Lepaya. Books mentioned in this episode: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking – Susan Cain On B******t – Harry G. Frankfurt Want to stay up to date with Leaders in Finance? Subscribe to our newsletter or explore all Leaders in Finance episodes. Questions, suggestions or feedback? We would love to hear from you. Email us at info@leadersinfinance.nl or visit leadersinfinance.nl. Previous guests on the Leaders in Finance podcast include: Klaas Knot (President of DNB), Frank Elderson (Member of the Executive Board of the ECB), Roland Boekhout (CEO of de Volksbank), Gerrit Zalm (former Minister of Finance and former CEO of ABN AMRO), Ingrid de Swart (Member of the Executive Board of a.s.r.), Pinar Abay (Member of the Management Board of ING and Head of Retail Banking), Robert Swaak (CEO of ABN AMRO), Marcel Zuidam (CEO of NN Bank), Saul van Beurden (CEO of Consumer, Small & Business Banking at Wells Fargo), David Knibbe (CEO of NN Group), Janine Vos (Member of the Executive Board of Rabobank), Nadine Klokke (CEO of Knab), Maarten Edixhoven (CEO of Van Lanschot Kempen), Jeroen Rijpkema (CEO of Triodos Bank), Nout Wellink (former President of DNB), Onno Ruding (former Minister of Finance), Yoram Schwarz (CEO of Movir), Laura van Geest (Chair of the Executive Board of the AFM), Katja Kok (CEO of Van Lanschot Switzerland), Ali Niknam (CEO of bunq), Nick Bortot (CEO of BUX), Petri Hofsté (supervisory board member, including at Rabobank and Achmea), Peter Paul de Vries (CEO of Value8), Barbara Baarsma (CEO of Rabo Carbon Bank), Jan van Rutte (supervisory board member at PGGM and BNG Bank and former CFO of ABN AMRO), Marguerite Soeteman-Reijnen (Chair of Aon Holdings), Lidwin van Velden (CEO of Nederlandse Waterschapsbank), Jan-Willem van der Schoot (CEO of Mastercard Netherlands), Joanne Kellermann (Chair of PFZW), Steven Maijoor (former Chair of ESMA), Radboud Vlaar (CEO of Finch Capital), Jos Baeten (CEO of a.s.r.), Karin van Baardwijk (CEO of Robeco), and Annette Mosman (CEO of APG).
