Vanessa Dager is a Managing Director and Head of Mergers & Acquisitions and Advisory—North America at BNP Paribas. She has more than 20 years of investment banking and strategic M&A experience advising companies across industries. In her role, Vanessa has been responsible for the M&A team’s buildout, for leading the origination and execution of transactions across sector groups, and for partnership among regional teams. Vanessa joined BNP Paribas in 2023 from Wells Fargo, where she led East Region Middle Market Investment Banking. She previously spent 13 years at Credit Suisse, where she was a Managing Director in the M&A Group and Co-Head of the Sell-Side Group for the Americas. She was responsible for the bank’s dedicated M&A practice for privately owned and sponsor-owned clients across industries and markets after leading its Latin America M&A Group. Vanessa began her career as an Analyst at Stern Stewart & Co. and subsequently joined Citigroup’s Global Markets division in New York as a Vice President within the Latin America investment banking coverage team. Vanessa holds an MBA from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Los Andes in Bogota (Colombia). Since 2018, she has served on the Board of Pro Mujer Inc., a nonprofit development organization that provides financial inclusion, health and education programs to low-income women in Latin America, of which she was appointed Chairman of the Board in 2024. Vanessa is based in New York, where she lives with her husband and two children.