Helping Make Sure Young Women Do Not Give Up Their Spot

“In my three-year term as Rector there will be some basic overarching themes like internationalization, innovation and the relationship with private companies. But in a transversal way I would like to pay greater attention to young people and especially young women. For example, I would like to encourage young researchers and students not to give up by giving them tools, protections and support that, paradoxically, are even less present in universities than in other professional environments.” On the eve of her appointment at the helm of the LIUC Cattaneo University of Castellanza, near Varese, Anna Gervasoni, Professor of Business Management, rewinds the tape of her career and her personal experience in academia, starting from her debut at Bocconi. “While I was deciding what to do after graduation, my thesis supervisor, Alberto Dessy, asked me to collaborate with the Institute and they entrusted me with a project on the board of directors of stockbrokers. I had just graduated with a degree in finance, among the first graduates of the new specialization, and for me this was an introduction to fascinating research topics. The reason I stayed at the university, however, was because of teaching and the relationship with students: it won me over to the point I never heeded the calls of companies, investment funds or the world of venture capital that was emerging in those years, where I could have found a well-paid job.”

Since the second half of the 1980s, Anna Gervasoni has been active in AIFI, the Italian Private Equity, Venture Capital and Private Debt Association, where she is now the general director. She arrived as an Assistant Professor at the nascent LIUC when the university was still in the fledgling phase in 1991. “For a time I held two positions, one at Bocconi and the other at Castellanza, but when my first child was born I had to rationalize my life. In a factory you work on the clock and you have maternity leave, some union protections, but in universities it's different: I didn't state I was pregnant until after giving birth because, had I been absent, my class hours would have been assigned to a colleague, research projects would have stopped, my book would have been postponed... and getting these things back would have been complicated. This is what I want to help young women with: not fearing for their careers at the first hint of pregnancy or personal commitment. University work has given me great satisfaction, but I have also experienced moments of discouragement and disappointment, like when you are young and lose a grant competition for no reason or when your merit or economic worth is not even acknowledged."

Perhaps it is due to the innate maternal sense of protection that the new Rector of the University of Castellanza would advise her children against pursuing an academic career. "To take this path, which takes a long time and is often discouraging, you have to be very strong inside. At the beginning it's like being an artist, you are not recognized or rewarded for your commitment. My secret was to compensate for these disappointments with other satisfactions, starting from my children to my role at AIFI for which I have received a lot of appreciation. I advise everyone to cultivate their own inner garden, with a nice fence around it, in which they can lock themselves every now and then and hear the full voice of their own personal strength. Never give up your private life for work. That said, being an academic is the best job in the world. I would do it all over again.”

The other leitmotif that has guided Anna Gervasoni’s career choices is to marry projects, rather than institutions or companies. “People and projects must come together in every situation, so that you can do good work, be truly useful and experience fulfillment. The very decision to accept the position of Rector for me is linked to the new project between LIUC and Confindustria Varese to further strengthen the links connecting research, companies, education and training. It is the project that chose me, rather than the other way around, and I accepted because I feel well suited to it.”