MARTA ZAVA

Marta Zava is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Practice in Finance at SDA Bocconi School of Management, where she also serves as Director of the Artificial Intelligence Applications in Finance Executive Program, and conducts research and teaching activities at the Department of Finance of Bocconi University, where she is a Fellow of the Baffi Center. She serves as an Executive Board Member of the Complex Systems Society and of the Network Science Society, and as Expert Economic Consultant for the European Central Bank and the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance. Further, Marta covers expert and advisory roles in major domestic public and private institutions, including CONSOB and Borsa Italiana – Euronext.

Her PhD dissertation, "Venture Capital and Complex Networks", defended at the Goethe University (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) with the highest honors (magna cum laude), has been awarded by the French Complex Systems Society (2023) and the European Financial Management Association (2025).

Her research activity focuses on venture capital, entrepreneurial finance, complex systems, artificial intelligence applications to finance, tokenization and blockchain in finance, financial networks, capital markets, and banking. Notably, her work "How do Venture Capitalists Become Influential?" received more than 30 sceintific talk invites. She works with co-authors across continents, regularly visiting other universities.

Marta recently published "The Science of Influencers and Superspreaders" (Springer, 2025, with H.A. Makse), a book on artificial intelligence and network science to understand the forces that shape markets, politics, and fake news. She has also contributed a chapter to "Entrepreneurial Finance: The Art and Science of Growing Ventures" (Cambridge University Press, 2026), and is the author of numerous chapters in financial textbooks, encyclopedias, and financial essays collections.

Marta has presented her work at leading international conferences and gives invited lectures and seminars worldwide (in more than 30 countries), in the fields of finance, venture capital, complex systems, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. Mentions go to the Society for Financial Studies Cavalcade, the Allied Social Sciences Association Conference, the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, the Conference in Complex Systems, the Network Science (NetSci) Conference, and the Financial Management Association Conference, where Marta is a regular. The full list is available on her website. She broadcasts her research by writing as a columnist in newspapers such as Il Sole 24 Ore and Economia e Finanza Online, and through public talks such as her TEDx talk "Finance Your Core: Why Italy Must Double Down on Itself" (TEDx Courmayeur, 2025). She actively engages in policy debate and public outreach.

Since 2024, she has been in charge of the "Venture Capital and Valuation" master course (EMIT): a unicum in the European landscape. Since 2026, she also teaches "International Corporate Finance", open to all Bocconi MSc programs, and directs the "Artificial Intelligence Applications in Finance" Executive Program at SDA Bocconi, where she further lectures on Basel 4 in executive education. Since 2022, Marta has been a Professor of the Finance Lab (Summer School) and of several CEMS seminars at Bocconi University (Retail Payments Innovation, M&A and Luxury M&A, Pre-Liquidity Events, and ESG Supply Chain), for which she obtained impeccable evaluations. Since 2021, she has been teaching International Finance and Investment Banking in master's degree courses and has offered her support to the Algebris Training Camp and the BNP Paribas "Finance, Investment and Sustainability: Thinking Long-Term" Block Seminar.

Marta is also part of the Equita Research Lab in Capital Markets, she is a Fellow at the Baffi Center, and has collaborated with Confindustria, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Citi Bank, Zurich Insurance, EssilorLuxottica, Algebris, BNP Paribas, Richemont International, and VISA, among others.

Previously, Marta worked as a Supervision Analyst at the European Central Bank, working at 360° on banking supervision with constant contacts with all European national supervisory authorities, and at the European Commission, focusing on Italy.