New talent joins IESE’s faculty

IESE welcomes eight new professors this week to its faculty, each of whom brings their unique expertise in areas from economics and financial and strategic management, to marketing, information systems and accounting.

The new additions bring the total number of full-time faculty to 117; in addition, IESE has 68 part-time professors and seven visiting professors. With a strong digital focus, many of the new professors look at how new technologies are impacting their areas of expertise. Their teaching and research will contribute to maintaining and increasing the academic excellence of IESE’s programs.

The new professors are:

Nuno Fernandes, Professor, Financial Management Department

Professor Fernandes has a PhD in Management from IESE, and a degree in Economics from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Before joining IESE, he was the dean of Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics and a professor of Finance at IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland).

Professor Fernandes works regularly on consulting projects with senior leaders and executive committees, advising companies and financial institutions in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

His work has been published in leading international journals and he has been honored with a number of awards.

Diego Aparicio, Assistant Professor, Marketing Department

Professor Aparicio received his PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining IESE, he worked at UBS Investment Bank, Guggenheim Partners and Facebook. He is also a partner at SUD, a design startup.

His areas of research include pricing, the economics of digitization and industrial organization.

Romain Boulongne, Assistant Professor, Strategic Management Department

Professor Boulongne holds a PhD in Management from HEC Paris, a MSc in Management and Organizational Dynamics from the University of Paris and a Graduate Degree in Political Science from Sciences Po Lille.

His primary research focus is on how categorization processes — the various cognitive mechanisms that people use to make sense of the social world — shape social evaluation and performance of organizations in markets. Another aspect of his research draws on his broader interest in questions related to sustainability.

Prior to joining academia, professor Boulongne spent several years studying the intricacies of complex organizational dynamics at a French social enterprise, working on topics such as urban development and human rights/equality.

Manos Gkeredakis, Assistant Professor, Information Systems Department

Professor Gkeredakis holds a BSc in Business Administration from Athens University of Economics and Business, a MSc in Operational Research and Management Science from Aston Business School, and a PhD in Management from Liverpool University.

Professor Gkeredakis studies how organizations might exploit new opportunities for digital innovation with a focus on crowdsourcing. He is particularly interested in the management and ethical challenges that crowd-based organizations face.

Before joining IESE, he worked for several years at Warwick Business School in the UK and the NYU Stern School of Business. His research has been published in top management journals such as Information Systems Research, Organization Studies, and Information and Organization.

Robert Raney, Assistant Professor, Accounting and Control Department

Professor Raney holds a PhD and MSc in Business Administration from the Foster School of Business, University of Washington and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

His research focuses on settings with high uncertainty and information asymmetry. He has active projects related to the fair value of financial assets, intangible assets and crypto assets. One of his focuses is helping students understand how to utilize technology and information to facilitate sound strategic decision-making.

Before joining IESE, Professor Raney worked as the director of valuation for a large hedge fund. Currently he is an advisor for a fintech company developing software for algorithmic-based trading of cryptocurrencies and provides consulting services for valuation-related projects.

Valentina Raponi, Assistant Professor, Financial Management Department

Professor Raponi holds a PhD in Finance from Imperial College Business School, a PhD in Methodological Statistics from the University of Rome La Sapienza, an MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MSc in Statistics and Economics from the University of Rome La Sapienza and a BSc in Statistics and Economics from the University of Rome La Sapienza.

Her research interests include financial econometrics, asset pricing and portfolio choice, econometric theory and machine learning. Her dissertation has been published in the Review of Financial Studies.

Previously, she worked as an intern at the European Central Bank, the Bank of Italy and the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Christoph Schneider, Assistant Professor, Information Systems Department

Professor Schneider holds a PhD in Information Systems and a BA in Hotel and Restaurant Administration from Washington State University.

His research interests include human-computer interaction, electronic commerce and computer-mediated collaboration.

Before joining IESE, professor Schneider was the MBA Associate Director and an assistant professor in the Department of Information Systems at City University of Hong Kong.

Eduard Talamàs, Assistant Professor, Economics Department

Professor Talamàs holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard University and a BA in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

He studies strategic interactions in economic networks and markets, with a focus on investment and bargaining. His research has been published in Games and Economic Behavior, and it has been funded by Fundación Ramón Areces, “La Caixa” Foundation, The Foundations of Human Behavior Initiative and The Rockefeller Foundation.

Before joining IESE, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.