Banker by Day, Theater Producer by Night
Investment banking and entertainment seem like distant worlds, yet in Barbara Chiodo's career they became intertwined and, in the end, conjoined, resulting in a unique professional and personal profile. A Bocconi graduate (Corporate Finance and Financial Markets), a former investment banker and CFO, today Barbara Chiodo is popular as an independent producer on the Broadway scene (her most recent stage hits include the musical Back to the Future). "My father always told me that, in whatever I wanted to do, I needed to be the most competent," recalls the alumna. "That's why after high school, I chose Bocconi, thinking it was the ideal context to learn financial expertise from the best. So I did, absorbing like a sponge the notions and examples that I found in all the years at the University and subsequent experiences.” Her Bocconi finance degree oriented Barbara towards the world of investment banking. “Many of us were moving to London and I also aspired to get a job there, but perhaps I wasn’t ready at the time and I didn’t manage to get hired in the English capital. It was then, however, that I developed an approach of openness to novelty and change that has stayed with ever since. I took a position at Reuters, I traveled across the world and, seeing many of my classmates enrolling in an MBA, I decided to do the same, at INSEAD in Paris. I was infected by what was happening around me, but I don’t see this as a negative fact, on the contrary. Every career is a path directed by the encounters and experiences that occur to you; it is essential to take inspiration from the people who share even just a part of the journey to get used to always being open to seizing positive opportunities.” It was with her MBA, and especially with the graduation show, staged and produced together with a group of master's students, that Barbara's second life began. Theater, which until that moment had been a passion, began to take up space in her professional agenda. "Unknowingly, I had done a good job as a producer of the show and this effort was noticed, so much so that I began to think about the idea of being able to do it as professional work," says the manager. "Once in London, where I had gone to work at Barclays, I began to collaborate with the Old Vic Theatre and live a double life: a banker by day and an apprentice producer in various theaters by night, so that I could learn all aspects of the profession, from reading scripts to fundraising and theater logistics. When Barclays fell into crisis in 2009, and I lost my job, I put myself to the test by producing a show based on the book by journalist Attilio Bolzoni Parole d'Onore (Words of Honor). The success of this work, and my determination, opened the doors of the Society of London Theatre to me and, in fact, directed my career towards the role of commercial producer.”
Her subsequent move to Los Angeles, following her husband, presented itself as the opportunity to put these skills to good use in the golden world of Hollywood. “In reality, it wasn’t like that,” Barbara demurs. “When I arrived in the US, the cultural change was almost traumatic, and it was the first time I found myself experiencing a move without already having a secure job I could count on. I wanted to get out of the investment banking environment and I thought I would find fertile ground in the land of opportunity; instead, I found myself on an uphill road again. I started climbing again. After years in Hollywood and an experience as a CFO, coupled with university teaching at UCLA, a friend, the famous producer Steve Fickinger, suggested I found a company specializing in musicals.” Barbara then turned this idea into reality a few years ago, despite the premature death of her mentor. “In the end, my professional dream came true almost suddenly, all at once, but in reality I can say that I had 20 years behind me which prepared me for this.”
