After earning her Bachelor of Arts in History as a National Merit Scholar at Yale University, Lia Dean served a brief tenure as a reporter with The Wall Street Journal. She subsequently entered the financial services sector as director of marketing and sales with the startup bank technology and electronic funds transfer company CashEdge. Returning to the academic environment to study business, Lia Dean enrolled in the MBA program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she founded the student publication Fifteen Magazine and received a full financial scholarship as a Siebel Scholar. Ms. Dean ultimately graduated from the MIT Sloan School of Management with a focus in marketing.

Since obtaining her MBA in 2005, Lia Dean has served multiple administrative and management roles with the international consultancy McKinsey & Company and the bank holding company Capital One. For the past two years, she has served Capital One as a Senior Vice President of National Expansion.