Biography

V’Ella Warren is the Senior Vice President for Finance and Facilities and Treasurer at the University of Washington (UW), a research university with annual revenues of $3 billion. She is responsible for an endowment of $2 billion and total investments of $3 billion. Ms. Warren also leads the University’s finance, accounting and audit organization with over 300 professionals.

Ms. Warren is currently a Board member for the University Bookstore and the Washington Arboretum. She is on the Investment Committee for Seattle University. She also chairs the President’s Advisory Committee on Enterprise Risk Management and the Information Management Advisory Committee for UW.

Ms. Warren has been at the UW since 1987. Prior to moving into higher education, she worked in commercial banking and manufacturing. Ms. Warren was the Vice President of the Asset Liability Planning for Seafirst Bank (1980 – 1985) and People’s Bank (1985 to 1987). She worked in Indonesia for Union Carbide (Manager, Management Development) and Springs Mills (Vice President, Personnel) in the mid-70’s, before moving into the finance arena.

A fifth-generation native of the Pacific Northwest, Ms. Warren has advanced degrees from the UW: M.A. in Asian Studies and MBA in Finance with honors. Her undergraduate degree is from Willamette University in Oregon, where she graduated cum laude in Political Science and Chinese.

Ms. Warren is a frequent national speaker and panelist on investment and leadership topics. She and Louis T. Wells, Jr. co-authored “Developing Country Investors in Indonesia,” which was published in the Bulletin of Indonesian Studies.