Gianmario Verona

Gianmario Verona is Rector of Bocconi University. He is a Professor of Management specialized on the strategic management of technology and innovation, with a focus on the theme of digital transformation. He has been Visiting Professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and Visiting Scholar at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Before being appointed Rector, he served Bocconi as Dean of the Faculty, Director of the MBA program and Director of the PhD in Business Administration. He is author of over 70 academic articles and 5 books and has published in all the leading management journals. Over the years he has collaborated with many Global500 companies, innovative multinationals and newly founded startups in terms of applied research, executive education and consulting activity.

Jon Slade

Jon Slade oversees the Financial Times’ subscriptions business, global advertising sales operations, print and digital consumer marketing, customer services and business development. He is the FT’s first CCO, and was appointed to the FT Group executive board in December 2014.

Slade was previously the FT’s BC2 managing director, and before that he was the commercial director for global digital advertising and insight, where he spearheaded the overall strategic direction for the FT’s digital advertising business. In this role he also established the FT’s first Global Commercial Academy to drive L&D for the advertising team. The popular programme is an effort to formalise the development of digital media and advertising skills among staff, and inspire new ideas, initiatives and collaboration. Slade has directed the development of new advertising products for FT.com, the FT’s mobile apps, third party platforms such as Flipboard and Google Newsstand, as well as howtospendit.com.

Most notably, he pioneered the FT’s widely reported initiative to establish a time-based currency for digital advertising, CPH, and advised the IAB on industry standards around ad viewability metrics.

He joined the FT in 2002 as technology client manager working with European technology and telecoms clients. He left the FT in 2005 to join News International, and returned to the FT in 2007 as commercial director for digital advertising. Before that he ran the FT’s strategic sales team – a global creative cross-platform advertising team he built in 2007. Slade has a background in client sales within the advertising technology sector previously working for Fairfax, both in London and Sydney. He is a member and board representative of the IAB in London, an active participant with the DCN in New York, and a spokesperson for the FT on digital strategy in news publishing.

Virginia Stagni

Virginia created and runs the FT Talent Challenge project. She works as a Business Development Manager at the Financial Times in the Commercial Department.

Her role consists in looking across new business ideas and new revenue growth opportunities that reflect on the sustainability of the business model of the News and Media industry, and on its future readership and talent acquisition. Her job is to keep the Financial Times among the most innovative media companies, being a source of innovation and energy across the media business – uncovering new opportunities for the FT to be successful.

Before joining the FT, Virginia has been a start-up founder & entrepreneur; she worked as a freelance reporter for La Stampa. In 2019 she was listed as one of the Future Leaders by Digiday and in 2016 she was awarded as the Best Italian Entrepreneur Under 25.

She founded Logos, a mobile phone blockchain start-up, and had previously founded a digital magazine, Revolart, as well as a cultural heritage foundation, Bolognadasballo.

She holds an MSc in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and a BSc in Economics and Management for Art, Culture and Communications from Bocconi University.

Michael Spence

Nobel prize winner for economics in 2001, together with George Akerlof and Joseph Stiglitz for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information, Michael Spence is senior professor at the Department of Economics at Bocconi University and professor in the MBA program at SDA Bocconi. Spence is also Professor in Economics & Business at the New York University Stern School of Business and Professor and Dean, Emeritus, at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. In 1981 he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association. Michael Spence is currently a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, serves as co-chair with Joseph Stiglitz of the Commission on Global Economic Transformation and is Senior Advisor at General Atlantic and Senior Advisor at Jasper Ridge Partners. He is the co-chair, with Dr. Victor Fung, of the Advisory Board of the Asia Global Institute at Hong Kong University and also serves on the Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He chaired a global Commission on Growth and Development (2006-2010), addressed to growth issues in emerging economies.

Vittorio Colao

Vittorio Colao is a Special Advisor at General Atlantic, the Chair of the Compensation Committee of Unilever PLC/NV, and a non Executive Director of Verizon Communications in the US.

He was CEO of Vodafone Group from 2008 to 2018. He was also Group CEO of RCS MediaGroup in Italy between 2004 and 2006. Mr Colao started his career at McKinsey. He is today a trustee and executive board member of Bocconi University in Milan and an advisor of the Oxford Martin School in the UK. Among various awards, he was appointed a UN He4She Impact champion for gender equality in 2015 and recognized as FT and HERoes champion in 2017. He is a graduate of Bocconi University in Italy and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Stefano Pogutz

Researcher at Bocconi University, where he graduated in Business Administration, Stefano Pogutz teaches several courses related to Sustainable Business and Green Management, Corporate Sustainability and Global Sustainability Strategy. Former director of the MAGER, Bocconi's Master in Green Management, Energy and CSR, he is a member of the SDA Bocconi Sustainability Lab. Since 1997 he has collaborated with CEMS-MIM (Community of European Business Schools-Master in International Management), where he is Chair of the Faculty Group "Business and the Environment".

Stefano Caselli

Stefano Caselli is Dean for International Affairs at Bocconi University, Professor of Banking and Finance and Algebris Chair in Long-Term Investment and Absolute Return. He is also a member of the Executive Board of the Global Alliance in Management Education (CEMS) and member of the Steering Committee of CIVICA, the European University of Social Sciences. His research focuses on the relationship between the banking and industrial system, on private equity & venture capital and on corporate governance of financial institutions. He is member of the Advisory Board of Confindustria and has widespread experience as an independent director in several boards, such as Generali Real Estate, Credito Valtellinese and Santander Consumer Bank.

Paola Cillo

Paola Cillo is a Professor of Management and Vice Director of the Department of Management & Technology at Bocconi University and Director of the Concentration in Luxury Business Management of the MBA program at SDA Bocconi school of management. She is also a member of the Gucci Research Lab, funded by Gucci at Bocconi University for research on innovation in creative organizations. She has held Visiting Researcher and Professors positions at, among others, Wharton School, Carlson School of Management and Tuck School of Business. Her teaching and research focuses on creativity and new product development, the dynamics of innovation and the use of big data in innovation and marketing. She has published in leading international journals, such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Research Policy and European Management Journal.

Antonella Carù

Antonella Carù is a Professor of Marketing at Bocconi University where she is also the Dean of the Graduate School. She is a faculty member at the SDA Bocconi School of Management. Her research focuses on services marketing and the experiential perspective in consumption and marketing. She is also interested in consumer behaviour and management in contexts pertaining to the arts. She has published on these topics in books and in various international journals.

Massimo Magni

Massimo Magni is Professor of Organization at Bocconi University and is currently Director of the MSc in International Management. He has served as Director of the Organization & HR Department at SDA Bocconi School of Management. Massimo earned a PhD from LUISS University and was a visiting PhD at the University of Maryland. His academic and professional work focuses on supporting company leaders in developing a team-oriented and collaborative culture. He has spoken at conferences and companies, and conducted workshops, in Europe, Middle East, and North America. His work has been published in publications such as MIT Sloan Management Review, World Economic Forum Agenda, Harvard Business Review (Italian edition).

Francesco Daveri

Francesco Daveri is Professor of Macroeconomics and the Director of the Full-Time MBA Program at SDA Bocconi school of management. He has taught at the Università Cattolica, Parma, Brescia, Munich and Lugano and has acted as a consultant for Italy’s Ministry of the Economy, the World Bank, the European Commission and the European Parliament. His research activities focus on the relationship between economic reforms, the adoption of new technologies and productivity trends at the firm, industry and aggregate level in Italy, Europe and the US. He is an op-ed columnist for Italian newspaper ‘Corriere della Sera’.

Kayode Josiah

Global business and commercial development Director focused on new revenue driving opportunities across the B2C, Marketing and Advertising departments. Customer facing, commercial, sales and business development, focused on digital development opportunities and incremental revenue creation.

Luca Trevisan

Luca Trevisan is professor of Computer Science at Bocconi University. After his PhD in computer science he held post-doc positions at MIT and DIMACS, and faculty positions at Columbia University, U.C. Berkeley and Stanford. His research is in theoretical computer science, and he has worked on the analysis of algorithms, on computational complexity, and on the foundations of cryptography. Professor Trevisan is a recipient of the ACM SIGACT Danny Lewin Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Sloan Research Fellowship, and of an ERC Advanced Grant.

Luca Mignini

Luca Mignini is Chief Operating Officer at Campbell Soup Company and is a member of the Campbell Leadership Team. As COO, Luca oversees Campbell’s core businesses, consisting of Campbell Snacks, Campbell Meals and Beverages and Campbell International, as well as the U.S. Sales and Global Product Development organizations. Since 2015, he directed Campbell’s integrated global biscuits and snacks portfolio. Mignini joined Campbell in 2013 as President, Campbell International, after previously covering the role of CEO of the Findus Italy division of IGLO Group and having worked over 20 years at SC Johnson. Mignini is a graduate of Bocconi University and earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Massimo Della Ragione

Massimo Della Ragione is co-head of Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs in Italy and the country coordinator for the Italian business. He joined Goldman Sachs as a managing director in 2006 and was named partner in2010. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, he was a managing director at J.P. Morgan in London from 1993 to 2006. From 1988 to 1993, he worked at Credito Italiano. He is a professor of practice at Bocconi University where he teaches investment banking. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Bocconi in 1988.

Markus Venzin

Markus Venzin is Professor of Global Strategy at Bocconi University and Dean of Innovation. He has held visiting positions and teaching assignments at, among others, University of Michigan, Fudan University, Copenhagen Business School, Essec and ESADE. He is an expert on growth strategies with a focus on innovation and corporate entrepreneurship. He has widespread experience in consulting services to CEOs and senior executives, in strategy workshops for top-management teams and as a speaker at corporate and industry events on such topics as company resilience, internationalization strategies and strategic decision-making dynamics. He has founded his own consulting firm and has served as a member of supervisory and advisory boards of several multinational firms.