Kanna Kunchala

Kanna Kunchala  is Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff at City Year. Kanna first joined the City Year family as a Boston corps member in 1995, and then continued on staff in the communications department and as the Director of CYZYGY, City Year’s National Convention, in 1997.

Kanna then joined the Boston Redevelopment Authority, as Special Assistant to the Director, working on the planning and economic development agenda for the city in the late 1990s. After public service, Kanna moved to the Midwest to attend business school, and subsequently entered the private sector at Goldman Sachs in Chicago as an equity derivatives salesman in 2001. Kanna moved with Goldman to London in 2004, helped build their international and emerging market equity derivatives franchises, and then moved to Barclays in 2011 to build those same businesses again.

Throughout his time in the private sector, Kanna maintained his connection to the service sector by helping to bring City Year to the UK. He was a Founding Board member of City Year UK, and served as the Finance Chair for five years. Kanna also organized the Goldman Sachs Gives Team in London to support the program’s work through donations from senior leaders. Since joining City Year, he is one of the only people to serve as a corps member, staff member, individual donor, corporate sponsor and Board Member.

Kanna is a graduate of Harvard College with a degree in English literature, and later received his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Kanna is married to Jill, and they are raising their three children in Lexington, Massachusetts.