Eleven new professors join IESE faculty

IESE welcomes 11 new professors to its faculty for the 2023-24 academic year, bringing on board a diverse cohort of global academics with expertise in areas ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to humane leadership. 

The new professors, four of whom are women, hold PhDs from the world’s best universities, and the majority have experience in business, including two that have started their own non-profit organizations. The professors come to IESE with experience in companies and organizations like Coca-Cola, McKinsey & Co., Johnson & Johnson and the International Monetary Fund. 

Their research interests explore the challenges facing business leaders today including privacy and cybersecurity in emerging AI-supported technologies, climate finance, fintech and digital currency and business purpose. 

With the new additions, IESE’s full-time faculty comprises 124 professors, of 24 different nationalities. In addition, IESE has 82 external collaborators. 

The new professors are: 

• Tawfiq Alashoor, Assistant Professor, Operations, Information and Technology Department 

Tawfiq Alashoor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Operations, Information and Technology at IESE Business School. Alashoor holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Saudi Arabia), Penn State University (U.S.), and Georgia State University (U.S.), respectively. He completed a postdoc program at the University of Notre Dame (U.S.) after his Ph.D. 

His research is centered around privacy and cybersecurity decision-making in emerging AI-supported technologies, such as apps, conversational agents, and robots. His research has been published in premier journals like Information Systems Research (ISR), Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS) and conferences including the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) and Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). He has received several academic awards, and he serves as a reviewer for several FT 50 business and academic journals. Alashoor’s work has been featured in the media and industry reports, and he has been a guest on several podcasts. 

Before joining IESE, Alashoor taught cybersecurity and other management-related courses at highly ranked universities in Denmark (Copenhagen Business School), Saudi Arabia (King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals), and the United States (University of Notre Dame and Georgia State University). He has received several awards for teaching excellence. 

To apply his research and teaching expertise in the real world, he collaborates with public and private organizations where he provides consulting services related to cybersecurity projects, software development, policy compliance, data ethics, and privacy education, training, and awareness programs. Alashoor is a distinguished member of the Association for Information Systems (AIS), a co-founder of the SaudiAIS Chapter, and holds other active roles in the business and academic world. Alashoor is a member of honorary societies including Upsilon Pi Epsilon and Beta Gamma Sigma. 

Beyond academia and professional life, Alashoor is a former professional handball player at Al-Taraj Club, a sports club based in Al Qatif, Saudi Arabia. He enjoys listening to podcasts and watching documentaries about AI, physics, and philosophy. 

• Natalie Burford, Assistant Professor, Strategic Management Department 

Natalie Burford is an Assistant Professor in the Strategic Management Department at IESE Business School. She studies technological systems that span across organizations. In recent research, she analyzes firms’ positioning in the e-commerce technology industry. For example, her work shows how e-commerce startups adapted to the European data protection regulation and illustrates how a price comparison platform’s strategy affected firms selling consumer goods on the platform. She is interested in understanding how firms use ecosystems and platforms to expand their firm boundaries. Her research interests include ecosystems and platforms, entrepreneurship, product systems and corporate strategy.  

Natalie holds a Ph.D. in Management from INSEAD, an MSc in Finance and Economics from LSE, a BA in Economics, and a BA in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen. Prior to her Ph.D., she gathered experience in business development at Delivery Hero, as the first employee of an insurance startup, in portfolio strategy research at Goldman Sachs and in strategy consulting at McKinsey & Company. Her research has been published in one of the leading academic journals, the Strategic Management Journal, and has been featured in practitioner outlets (hbr.org). 

• Veronica Roberta Cappelli, Assistant Professor, Managerial Decisions Sciences Department 

Veronica Roberta Cappelli is an Assistant Professor of Managerial Decision Sciences at IESE Business School. She received her Ph.D. in Economics and Decision Sciences from HEC Paris and her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Economics and Social Sciences, together with her M.Phil. in Statistics, from Bocconi University. Prior to joining IESE Business School, she has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, an Applied Complexity Fellow at The Santa Fe Institute and a Visiting Scholar at INSEAD. 

Her research is multidisciplinary, ranging from behavioral economics to management and complex systems. A common thread of her work is her focus on the analysis of individual and organizational decision-making under conditions of uncertainty and over time, that she seeks to study using formal, computational, and experimental methods. Her more recent work investigates the determinants of the dynamics of growth of companies. Her research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of the European Economic Association and the European Journal of Operational Research. 

• Ricard Gil, Visiting Professor, Strategic Management Department 

Ricard Gil joins the Strategic Management Department as a Visiting Professor. He comes from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario (Canada), where he is an associate professor of business economics. Prior to that, Ricard was a faculty member of the Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University, and has held positions at the London School of Economics, the Sloan School of Management at MIT, Harvard Business School, and the University of California in Santa Cruz.  

He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from The University of Chicago, and a B.A. in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain).  

Ricard’s research specializes in organizational economics with a focus on strategy and industrial organization. His research has been published in journals such as American Economic Journal, Management Science, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, and Marketing Science, among others. 

• Liinus Hietaniemi, Assistant Professor, Entrepreneurship Department 

Liinus Hietaniemi is an Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurship Department at IESE Business School. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Res. from London Business School, a M.Sc. from Imperial College London, and a B.A. from Harvard University.  

Prior to his academic career, Liinus designed and developed algorithms as a startup cofounder and early employee in the software industry. 

Liinus applies mathematical modelling and quantitative research methods to study questions at the intersection of entrepreneurship and strategic human capital. For example, some of his recent work explores when startups should start scaling their team (forthcoming in Strategic Management Journal). 

• Daniel Mirny, Assistant Professor, Marketing Department 

Daniel Mirny is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at IESE Business School. Daniel has a B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT and a Ph.D. in Management from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. 

His research broadly considers how consumers perceive and process information in a noisy, information-rich world. This includes (i) how consumers perceive the objectivity of information, (ii) why consumers fail to remember the sources of information, and (iii) when consumers see the world in black and white rather than in shades of gray. Daniel is interested in both the cognitive mechanisms underpinning these processes, as well as in their applications to marketing, interpersonal conflict, political polarization, and the spread of misinformation. 

Daniel also cares deeply about mental health on college campuses, with an interest in digital innovations and standardized metrics of impact. He has spent nearly a decade consulting various tech x mental health platforms. The work of his nonprofit, Lean On Me, has been covered by The Washington Post, NPR, NBC News, CBS News, The Boston Globe, etc. 

• Alejandro Moreno-Salamanca, Senior Lecturer, Managing People in Organizations Department 

Alejandro joins IESE as Senior Lecturer of Managing People in Organizations. For the last five years, he served as Dean of INALDE Business School in Bogotá, Colombia where he also was a professor. He has been a visiting professor in several business schools in Europe and in Latin America for the last 15 years. 

He currently serves on different boards of directors for both profit and non-profit organizations in Colombia. Alejandro has managerial experience of more than 25 years in several companies such as AC Nielsen, Andean Bank and Liberty Mutual Group where he was granted a Chairman´s Award in 2005.  

Alejandro is our Alumni. He holds a PhD in Management from IESE Business School. He is an Executive MBA from INALDE Business School. He is GLOCOLL from HARVARD Business School. He also holds a CIDENAL diploma from the Superior War School of Colombia, and he is a specialist in Marketing Management and Business Administration from Universidad del Rosario in Colombia.  

His current research interests are business purpose and humane leadership, among others. He recently wrote the book: “Hacia un libre mercado humanista” where in dialogue with key figures of the Colombian business world, he develops his own ideas regarding the future of capitalism. Alejandro is a member of the Society for Business Ethics SBE, which awarded him an SBE Founders Award in Boston in 2012. 

Alejandro has been married for more than 20 years to Maria del Pilar. They are the parents of three daughters and one son. As the family institution is important for them, with some other friends, they co-founded FAMOF in 2007, an NGO devoted to family enrichment in several cities in Colombia. 

• Claudio Rizzi, Assistant Professor, Financial Management Department 

Claudio Rizzi joins the Financial Management Department at IESE Business School as an Assistant Professor. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Miami and a BS and MS in Finance from Florida State University. 

Claudio’s research focuses on sustainable and climate finance, with a particular interest in the role of nature and biodiversity loss on financial markets, firms, and household finances. His dissertation has received multiple awards including the BlackRock Applied Research award, the FIASI‐Gabelli School ESG Competition, and the best paper award at various conferences. 

He has presented at leading conferences in finance (United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment Academic Week, GRASFI, AFA, EFA, Finance Down Under, etc.) and his research has been featured in various media (UN PRI Blog, Network for Business Sustainability, and Natural Areas Association Newsletter). 

• Yuliya Snihur, Associate Professor, Entrepreneurship Department 

Yuliya is an Associate Professor in the Entrepreneurship Department at IESE. She received her Ph.D. from IESE (Spain) and Bachelor degree from Neoma (France) and Northeastern University (USA). Prior to joining IESE, Yuliya taught and studied new ventures based on the analysis of their business models at Toulouse Business School (France). Before her academic career, she worked in corporate finance at both established firms such as Johnson & Johnson and Coca Cola as well as at startups.  

Yuliya’s research lies at the intersection of entrepreneurship, innovation, and organization theory. She is interested in how entrepreneurial leaders design innovative and high-performing business models when facing technological change, disruptions, and evolving ecosystems. By using cognitive and linguistic approaches such as framing she studies the role of time and language in entrepreneurship. 

Yuliya’s research has been published in leading academic journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management, and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. She serves as associate editor of Journal of Management Studies and editorial board member at Academy of Management Journal, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and Strategic Organization. 

• Tammaro Terracciano, Assistant Professor, Financial Management Department 

Tammaro Terracciano is an Assistant Professor of Finance in the Financial Management Department at IESE Business School. Tammaro earned a Ph.D. in Finance from the Swiss Finance Institute and the University of Geneva, with extensive research periods at the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard University. 

His research interests include international finance, monetary economics, fintech, and digital currency. On several occasions, Tammaro’s work appeared in leading financial media such as the Financial Times. 

Before joining IESE, Tammaro taught fintech for the University of Luxembourg and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. He also worked for UniCredit Group and the International Monetary Fund. 

• Laura Wagner, Associate Professor, Operations, Information and
  Technology Department 

Laura Wagner joins the Operations, Information Systems and Technology Department of IESE as an Associate Professor. She obtained her Bachelor and master’s in mechanical engineering and economics (Dipl.Ing) at the Technical University Graz in Austria, received an MBA from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, and a Ph.D. from MIT-Zaragoza Logistics Center in Spain. As a doctoral student, she spent time at MIT and the University of Pompeu Fabra, and also spent a year as a post-doctoral researcher at IESE-Business School.  

Her research interests cover theory-driven, data-informed topics in assortment planning and consumer choice models, as well as empirical research using causal inference methods, especially in retail settings. She regularly collaborates with Fashion Retailers, Grocery Retailers and lately Telecommunication Providers, to tackle data-driven challenges these companies face. Her work has been published in top academic journals such as Operations Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and European Journal of Operational Research.  

Prior to her Ph.D., she gained business and management experience in several industries, ranging from logistics consulting and product management to test and program management at leading companies including Virtual Vehicle, Bosch Rexroth, Protema Logistics Consulting and ThyssenKrupp Presta AG.