Professor Francesca Cornelli

Alexander M. Knaster Professor, Professor of Finance; Faculty Advisor for the MiF, MiM and Sloan Programmes


BA (Bocconi), PhD (Harvard)


Professor Francesca Cornelli is Professor of Finance and Director of Private Equity at LBS. Her research interests include corporate governance, private equity, privatisation, bankruptcy, initial public offerings and innovation policy. She has held positions, or taught, at Wharton, the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, The London School of Economics, the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and the New Economic School in Moscow.


She has published several papers in the leading finance and economics journals and she gives regular talks at major conferences and universities. She is an editor of The Review of Financial Studies and of Private Equity Findings.


She has been an associate editor of the Journal of Finance (2003-2012) of the Journal of Financial Intermediation (2007-2014) and a member of the board of editors of The Review of Economic Studies (1998-2007).


Professor Cornelli is a Research Fellow of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Banque de France Foundation. She is a member of the board of directors of the American Finance Association. She is also a member of the boards of Telecom Italia, COFIDE spa, Swiss Re International and Swiss Re Europe, and of the European School of Management and Technology Academic Board.


She has been a member of the Council of the European Economic Association and the Council of the Royal Economic Society. She has carried out work for the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, for the UK Department for International Development, and the Irish Financial Authority.