Michael Arena

Michael Arena is Bank of America's Consumer Banking Transformation Leadership Development executive, and a visiting scientist in the Center for Future Banking. He is responsible for driving the behavioral strategies necessary to build a culture of innovation across the consumer business. In this role, he will drive alignment between the Center for Future Banking partnership between the Media Lab and BAC's Customer Banking Design initiative.

Arena has over 20 years of experience in driving innovation and strategic change. Previously, he was responsible for the Leadership Development Programs & Processes for Global Consumer and Small Business Banking.

Arena is an adjunct faculty member of Pfeiffer University, teaching in their Master's of Organizational Leadership and Change program. He also serves on the board of the McColl Center's Innovation Institute, an organization dedicated to driving personal and social innovation. His research findings on large-scale change and complexity science have been published in multiple peer-reviewed management journals.

Before joining Bank of America, Arena led the Global Consulting organization for Ingersoll-Rand Corporation, where he was responsible for driving the enterprise operational excellence initiative through the adoption of lean principles, innovation techniques, and the six-sigma business management strategy. He was also the lead faculty member of Ingersoll-Rand University's Change Management and Innovation College. Arena has also served in multiple international consulting roles, working with such companies as General Motors, Bayer Corp., and BF Goodrich.

He has a BS in industrial technology from the California University of Pennsylvania, an MBA with an emphasis in organizational behavior, and a PhD in organization dynamics, both from the Union Institute.