Francesca Cornelli has been a member of our Board since July 2023 and serves on the Audit Committee. Dr. Cornelli is the Dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management a position she has held since August of 2019. She is also a professor of finance and holds the Donald P. Jacobs Chair of Finance.

Previously, she was a professor of finance and deputy dean at London Business School. Dr. Cornelli directed and advanced the highly regarded Private Equity Institute of London Business School, building a bridge between academia and practice by partnering with private equity leaders in London, alumni and top academics in the field. Dr Cornelli’e research interests include corporate governance, private equity, privatization, bankruptcy, IPOs, and innovation policy. She has been an editor of the Review of Financial Studies and previously served on the board of editors of the Review of Economic Studies and as an associate editor at the Journal of Finance. Dr. Cornelli is a research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and previously served as a director of the American Finance Association.

Dr. Cornelli currently serves on several boards including GCM Grosvenor Inc., Edizione, GCP, Civic Consulting Alliance and Lyric Opera of Chicago. She has also served as an independent board member of several global corporations, including GCP Capital Partners Limited, an investment company, from 2023 to 2024, which was recently acquired, Banca Intesa San Paolo from 2016 to 2019, Telecom Italia from 2014 to 2018, American Finance Association from 2013 to 2016, and Swiss Re International and Swiss Re Holdings from 2013 to 2019.

In January 2016, Dr. Cornelli helped create and became a board member of AFFECT, a committee of the American Finance Association designed to promote the advancement of women academics in the field of finance.