PEOPLE
UPO
Vincenzo Capizzi
Vincenzo Capizzi, Ph.D., is Full Professor of Banking and Finance at University of Piemonte Orientale (IT).
His research activity deals with investment banking, private equity and venture capital, with a special focus in the last decade on entrepreneurial finance, business angels and crowdfunding. He is also Affiliate Professor of Banking and Finance at SDA Bocconi School of Management. He is Visiting Scholar at Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, NJ). His contributions have been published in ETP, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Small Business Management, Venture Capital, International Finance and Banking, Journal of Governance and Regulation, Corporate Ownership and Control, Bancaria and Economia & Management, among others. He is the Editor in Chief of “Venture Capital: an International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance”, the Editor in Chief of “Journal of Financial Management, Markets and Institutions” and joins the editorial board of many other international scientific journals.
UPO
Francesca Tenca
Francesca Tenca, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Corporate Finance at University of Piemonte Orientale (IT).
Her research activity deals mainly with Entrepreneurial Finance with a focus on Crowdfunding, Venture Capital and Business Angels. She holds a Ph.D in Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering from Politecnico di Milano. She has been a visiting scholar at the Imperial College (London) and at the Vlerick Business School (Belgium). She has contributed articles on these topics on Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Corporate Finance, British Journal of Management, Journal of Technology Transfer, International Small Business Journal, Venture Capital, Journal of Economic Surveys, among others. She is also a specialist of information processing in decision-making processes and entrepreneurial passion research stream.
UJM
Laurence Cohen
Laurence Cohen, has been an associate professor of finance at the University Jean Moulin IAE lyon3 since September 2018.
At iaelyon (Ecole Universitaire de Management), she teaches finance and corporate restructuring and is in charge of the “Diplôme Supérieur de Comptabilité et de Gestion (DSCG)”. She is a member of the Magellan Research Laboratory. Her main areas of interest are entrepreneurial finance and governance in relation to financial behaviour, relationships with investors (business angels and capital investors) and decision-making style. Her latest research analyses, on the one hand, the contribution of business angels to the financing and growth of companies and the different heuristics used by those involved in entrepreneurial finance (effectual and causal logic). On the other hand, the involvement of business angels in business angel networks, questioning the role of gender in mixed networks and networks of women BAs. She is involved in the European HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-SE BAC4SHC program on human capital. The aim of this project is to advance existing research on the role of human capital (including gender and CSR) within two key players in the entrepreneurial finance ecosystem: business angels and Crowdinvestors. She is also co-scientific leader of the Bourgeon 2024 project: “Supporting and financing sustainable transformation in SMEs”. The aim of our research project is to study the ways in which innovative SMEs are supported and accompanied in this transition.
UJM
Aurélien Petit
Aurélien Petit, is a senior lecturer in economics at the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Magellan laboratory. His research interests focus on sustainable development, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and finance, emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach. His current studies include social aspects of climate change mitigation and adaptation. He is also involved in the SOLU-BIOD exploratory research program and priority equipment (PEPR) for the implementation of Nature-based Solutions in favor of biodiversity and its services for human societies, as well as in the European HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-SE BAC4SHC program on human capital and the consideration of ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) criteria by entrepreneurial finance investors. Prior to that, he investigated extra-financial ratings, ESG disclosure strategies and the stock market impact of ESG information. He has also worked on corporate finance, in particular on information cascades in crowdfunding and on business angels’ decision-making criteria. His teaching includes various aspects of sustainable development and CSR, international economics and academic research methods, at all university levels. He is educational manager of the Master 1 International Business program of the iaelyon.
ACC
Franco Petocchi
Franco Petocchi, MBA, is the Founder & Managing Partner at Accirculate SRL.
Franco is an entrepreneur, international advisor and senior manager with more than 25 years of integrated consulting and industry experience in supply chain & logistics. At Accirculate, a Brussels-based niche consulting firm focused on Circular Supply Chains and broadly covering the environmental sustainability domain, Franco established an international community of experienced professionals, academics and entrepreneurs dedicated to “accelerate circularity” in supply chains. Today, Accirculate is active in EU research & innovation programmes, professional training and consulting services.
Prior to his role at Accirculate, Franco held senior management positions at global, regional and local levels. He delivered major operational and technological transformation and integration programmes and projects in industry leading corporations, including Accenture, Panalpina and the DHL Group. Franco holds an Executive MBA degree from SDA Bocconi, IT and International Courses diplomas from United Nations University, JP. He accomplished Supply Chain Management Executive & MicroMasters courses (MIT CTL, MITx), Circular Economy courses (TUDelft, Leiden University, WBCSD), and PM² project management Trainer & Advanced levels certifications (PM² Alliance).
POL
Giancarlo Giudici
Giancarlo Giudici, is full professor of corporate finance at Politecnico di Milano.
He belongs to the faculty of POLIMI Graduate School of Management where he teaches Finance. He wrote several publications on domestic and international journals on the topics of entrepreneurship, corporate financing, listings and IPOs, venture capital and crowdfunding. He is the director of the Italian Observatories on Minibond and Crowdinvesting at Politecnico di Milano, School of Management. He led several projects financed by public and private entities on the topics of competitiveness and firm financing. He is adjunct professor at the Ton Duc Thang University in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam).
MMM
Johanna Shima
Johanna Shima, joined Make Mothers Matter (MMM) in 2014.
At the international level her work has focused on expanding MMM’s network around the world, advocating for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Since 2019 she leads the EU Delegation, developing MMM’s advocacy position and presenting it to the different EU policy makers and other relevant EU stakeholders. Particularly addressing economic and labour issues, access to maternal health care and mental health, vulnerability to poverty, family support programs, gender equality. She studied law and philosophy, and holds a master degree of laws, LL.M, from Harvard University. She speaks Spanish, English, French and German.
MMM
Laurence Vanden Abeele-Bosteels
Laurence Vanden Abeele-Bosteels is a pharmacist by education, she joined Make Mothers Matter (MMM) in 2014 as head of MMM Belgium.
Later she also joined the EU delegation as the project coordinator in the cost action Rise up PPD. Today she is still working for the Spiomet4health project. She works on the promotion of women’s health, gender equality and the role of women in peace. She also has another activity as project manager at the Belgian Kids’ Fund for Pediatric Research (the Scientific Fund of the Children University Hospital Queen Fabiola in Brussels), which is funding young researchers completing a PHD in pediatric research, by offering them annual grants. She speaks French, Flemish, English, Spanish and Portuguese.
B12
Mihailo Backovic
Mihailo Backovic currently holds the role of Managing Partner. He joined B12 Consulting in September of 2017 as an Associate, specializing in artificial intelligence. He quickly took on more responsibilities by assuming the Project Manager and AI Lead functions before assuming his current position in 2022.
Mihailo obtained his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics from the University of Kansas in the USA in 2011, after which he pursued postdoctoral positions at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel (2011–2014) and UCLouvain (2014–2017). During his research career, Mihailo maintained a broad interest in research topics, ranging from studies of new physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC at CERN, Geneva) to searches for the elusive dark matter.
At B12 Consulting , Mihailo helped solve complex business challenges in a wide range of domains such as mobility, pharmaceuticals, biotech, retail and industry 4.0. Among many others, he led an award-winning project to develop a scalable, low-cost system for preventive maintenance of tram overhead lines, built AI-powered digital twins for electrical vehicles, and helped develop Machine Learning solutions to improve experimental outcomes in biotech processes by a factor of 8.
In his spare time, Mihailo enjoys cooking, baking sourdough bread and learning how to fly a Boeing 737 on a full cockpit simulator. He is passionate about science, technology, and understanding how the World works in general.
WAS
Carlo Allevi
Carlo Allevi, is one of the founders of the Italian equity crowdfunding platform WeAreStarting.
He graduated from the Politecnico di Milano with a M.Eng. degree in Energy Engineering. In 2010, Carlo was a researcher at the University of New South Wales in Australia and won the 2011 European Talent Award for Innovative Energy Systems. Between 2011 and 2014, he managed due diligence activities for PV projects for a total capacity of several hundred MWs and he provided technical and management assistance as Asset Manager and Lender’s Engineer on several PV plants in Italy and abroad. He managed the launch and development of the equity crowdfunding platform WeAreStarting, that was launched in late 2015. Since then Carlo has acted as operations manager and director within the company and is now one of the most prominent Italian experts in the field of equity crowdfunding. In the first eight years of operations, also thanks to Carlo’s contribution, WeAreStarting completed successfully more than 60 offerings for Italian start-ups and SMEs, including some that are currently among the best performing funded companies in Italy.
HORIZON – MSCA -2022 -SE -01
BAC4SHC has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon – MARIE SKLODOWSKA – CURIE ACTIONS STAFF EXCHANGES (MSCA – SE) MSCA – SE -2022 – 101129958
