Autodesk named Diana Colella executive vice president of its architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) business on October 6, 2026. She succeeds Amy Bunszel, who Autodesk says will remain through November 2 to support the transition. The announcement does not specify Colella’s start date.
What Autodesk announced
Colella will lead Autodesk’s AEC business, which the company describes as its largest industry business. Autodesk says Bunszel will support the handoff through November 2, 2026; it has not announced a separate effective date for Colella’s appointment.
The appointment and transition details are in Autodesk’s October 6 announcement.
What Colella brings to the role
Autodesk says Colella has nearly three decades of experience at the company across finance, strategy, sales, operations, product management and industry leadership. She joined through Autodesk’s acquisition of Discreet Logic, previously led the AutoCAD business and helped launch One AutoCAD.
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Most recently, she led Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment business through its AI transformation and guided its Flow platform strategy. Autodesk says she will continue overseeing Media & Entertainment while it searches for a new leader, who will report directly to her. The company’s executive biography offers earlier career context, but may reflect a title from before this AEC appointment.
Autodesk’s stated AEC product strategy
Autodesk says it plans to advance Forma, which it describes as its AEC industry cloud, while evolving desktop products including Revit and Civil 3D and connecting them more closely to Forma workflows. The company says Forma is intended to connect data, context and workflows across the AEC lifecycle, including through AI and project intelligence.
Rank #2
Autodesk’s stated goals for closer connections include bringing project lifecycle data and context together, reducing friction, supporting better-informed decisions and increasing teams’ capacity to design and build. These are strategic aims in the announcement—not evidence that integration is complete or that customers have already achieved those outcomes.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why Autodesk says it chose Colella
CEO Andrew Anagnost framed the appointment around technology change, product and data alignment, and customer outcomes. Colella said she would listen to customers and build on the foundation created by Bunszel and the AEC team, with the aim of translating work on Forma and AI into improvements across project design, construction and operation.
Rank #3
Those statements describe Autodesk management’s rationale and priorities. The announcement does not provide independent evidence of future product or business results.
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