Vanessa Ceia

Vanessa Ceia works with large, global organizations to design and scale innovation strategies that drive systems-level change. Previously, she led Oxfam’s Global Innovation Lab for Equality (aGILE), managing a multi-project portfolio across 10+ countries with measurable economic impact for communities worldwide.

As Senior Consultant at Change Logic, Vanessa supports multinational organizations across sectors, from automotive and telecom to food and technology, on innovation strategy, venture building, and large-scale transformation initiatives. She specializes in human-centered design methodologies, applying customer discovery and stakeholder research to de-risk investments and design new ventures. Her work spans Latin America, MENA, Europe, and Asia, supporting market entry, cultural transformation, and business model pivots.

Before her innovation leadership roles, Vanessa was Assistant Professor at McGill University and Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, where she directed research projects and led interdisciplinary initiatives on digital culture and social change.

Vanessa holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from NYU, an M.A. from McGill University, and an Executive Certificate in Design Thinking from MIT Sloan. She is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with deep regional expertise in Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula, and Africa. Her work has been published in Corporate Explorer Fieldbook (Wiley, 2023), Digital Studies (2022), Social Media + Society (2020), and Oxfam (2021), among others, and includes a Stanford business case with Ulrike Schaede and Charles A. O’Reilly III (2021).