Deborah Chase Hopkins
Deborah C. Hopkins | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 12, 1954 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Occupation | Business executive |
| Known for | CEO of Double Chase Advisors; Chief Innovation Officer at Citigroup; CEO of Citi Ventures |
Deborah C. Hopkins holds the position of CEO at Double Chase Advisors and acts as an independent member on various corporate boards. She was appointed Chief Innovation Officer at Citigroup in 2008 and took on the role of CEO for Citi Ventures in 2010, overseeing the bank’s venture capital operations until her retirement at the close of 2016.
Biography
Deborah Chase Hitch was born on November 12, 1954, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the third child among four siblings. After graduating from Seaholm High School located in Birmingham, Michigan, she spent two years studying at Michigan State University before obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from Walsh College in 1977.
Career
Hopkins launched her professional journey at National Bank of Detroit and subsequently worked for five years as a financial analyst at Ford Motor Company. She dedicated 13 years to Burroughs Corporation (which later became Unisys), where she progressed to roles including Corporate Controller and General Manager of Global Services. Her career path then led her to General Motors, where she served as General Auditor and was later appointed CFO of General Motors Europe based in Switzerland.
Between 1998 and 2000, Hopkins held the CFO position at The Boeing Company before transitioning to Lucent Technologies as CFO. Her period at Lucent lasted one year during a time marked by company difficulties.
Citigroup
In 2003, Hopkins joined Citigroup as Head of Strategy. She advanced to Chief Operations & Technology Officer in 2005 and acted as a senior advisor to the Global Investment Bank. In 2008, she was named Citigroup’s inaugural Chief Innovation Officer, a first in the institution’s two-century history. Additionally, she chaired Venture Capital Initiatives aimed at uncovering investment opportunities that aligned with her innovation objectives.
Service and awards
Hopkins currently holds board memberships with Union Pacific, Marsh & McLennan, and VentureWell. She is also involved with the Global Women's Leadership Network (GWLN), an initiative by Santa Clara University that supports women-led projects focused on social justice and economic sustainability, along with Computers for Youth (CFY) and the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University.
Her advisory contributions extend to the Stanford Technology Venture Program and Riverwood Capital, while she serves as an Executive Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
In previous years, Hopkins has been a board member for Qlik Technologies and DuPont.
Acknowledged as a distinguished leader, she was ranked by Fortune magazine among the most powerful women in American business—achieving No. 2 in 2000 and No. 6 in 1999—and was included in Institutional Investor’s top Tech 50 lists for both 2011 and 2012.