The faculty is also female
“After graduating from high school, I knew nothing about economics, Bocconi was a gamble. It was there that I realized I loved using math to understand the big problems in the markets. Now I try to pass on the same passion to my students.” Francesca Cornelli is now Dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University near Chicago. She spent years as a researcher, working on corporate governance, private equity, and innovation policy, and building an academic career at Harvard and at London Business School (LBS).
The first step in her career was graduating from Bocconi in Economic and Social Disciplines (DES) in 1987. She says: “I was undecided between the humanities and the sciences, so the solution was the newly created DES course, which ranged from epistemology to statistics.” It was in the classroom that she discovered her love of numbers and markets. “I enjoyed studying so much,” she says, “that I decided to continue, but once again without really knowing what to expect. I had no clear goal or idea of what it meant to do a PhD or to work in academia. But I liked research so much, especially asking original questions and then finding the answers.”
As a result of her efforts at Harvard, where she earned a PhD in Economic Theory in 1992, Cornelli became the first woman to join the faculty of the London Business School as a full professor. Here she would work for 25 years, also serving as Director of Private Equity at LBS, the institute within the London university that conducts research and organizes forums on private equity, venture capital, and crowdfunding. Then, in 2019, she got the call from the Kellogg School of Management and decided to return to the United States, facing all the complications of having to deal with the pandemic, which hit shortly after her arrival. “After the shock of Covid, I did the impossible to solve everyday problems that seemed insurmountable, a great training ground where the satisfaction was to see that in the midst of the crisis everyone was working together: the students, the lecturers, the entire faculty.”
For Cornelli, the best thing about being in charge today is the coordination role. As she explains: “On the one hand, there’s the increase in the number of students; on the other, there’s the choice of programs and the motivation of having to create new faculty areas by managing the funds properly.” On being a woman in an academic environment, she says: “I inherited the role from a woman dean, which made the transition easier. However, it’s true there are only a few of us; it’s no coincidence that we’ve formed a group with the other deans and we meet once a year to discuss various activities. It’s an incredible network that always provides concrete ideas and insights.”
More good news is that Cornelli has seen an increase in the number of female deans and researchers. In 2016, she has also helped create AFFECT, the American Finance Association’s committee for the advancement of women in academic research, particularly in finance. “Women, unfortunately, don’t value an academic career enough, which is a continuous intellectual stimulation, between papers and conferences. I encourage them as much as possible because it’s also a career that offers a great deal of flexibility and the freedom to manage your time. I realized this when I had twins – I would put them to bed and then I’d go to work,” she adds.
As we came to the end of our chat, Cornelli was keen to encourage the younger generation just like a teacher would: “Study something you love, but go beyond the stereotypes. Finance is something intuitive. It has no gender, and knowing the basics makes all the difference in everyday life.”
