Research Community

Supervisor: Jordi Nin

BIO: 
Maider Abad holds a PhD in Network and Information Technologies and a degree in Biomedical Engineering, with a strong foundation in Data Science. She is a specialist in Computer Vision applied to medical imaging, developing and implementing advanced AI tools to support disease diagnosis and enhance clinical decision-making.
Her research bridges cutting-edge artificial intelligence with medical technology, aiming to improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency. Maider has contributed to numerous interdisciplinary projects at the intersection of AI and healthcare, driving innovation in medical image analysis. She has collaborated with prominent research institutions, including the Institute of Cardiovascular Science at University College London (UCL), as well as with companies such as iLine Microsystems in Spain and icometrix in Belgium.

Supervisor: Lisa Hehenberger

BIO:
Chiara is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Esade Center for Social Impact. She is finalizing her PhD at Copenhagen Business School in Management and Sustainability. Her research focuses on Impact Measurement and Management in Impact Investing. Her interest lies in the managerial dynamics associated with materiality, power dynamics, stakeholder engagement, and commensuration. She is the author of scientific papers, a book chapter, and case studies on those topics. She employs an engaged scholarship orientation in her research, thereby producing research that is relevant to practice. She recently won a scholarship to participate in the prestigious “Impact Measurement” executive course (edition June 2023) at Saïd Business School, Oxford University. Chiara is also an Honorary Research Fellow at UCL School of Management (London). Previously, she worked in the pharmaceutical industry at Novo Nordisk (Copenhagen) and in the venture capital field at Luiss Enlabs (Rome).

Supervisor: Irene Unceta

BIO:
Arayeh Afsordegan obtained her PhD in Industrial Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). She is currently a researcher at the Institute for Data-Driven Decisions at Esade. She specializes in sustainable management using Multi-Criteria Decision-Making tools and sustainable machine learning. Her research focuses on developing and implementing techniques to address complex sustainability challenges in industrial settings. Her recent work includes research on environmental adaptation and differential replication in machine learning under the supervision of Irene Unceta and Jordi Nin. This innovative approach addresses how machine learning models can adapt to changing environmental constraints, drawing parallels with biological evolution. This work proposes solutions based on differential replication, where knowledge from deployed models is reused to train more suitable future generations. This research has significant implications for maintaining the effectiveness of machine learning models in dynamic, real-world environments across various applications.

Supervisor: Ivanka Visnjic

BIO: Kaushik is a post-doctoral researcher at Esade Business school where he also received his Ph.D. in Innovation Management. His research explores how science and scientists adapt to evolving social and business needs. He focuses in particular on how crises reshape the trajectory of innovation.
Prior to moving to academia Kaushik worked as a consultant specializing in designing sales incentive plans for new product launches at established pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly and Janssen.
Originally from Bangalore in India, Kaushik also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the Ohio State University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Sirmaur.

Supervisor: Uri Simonshon

Supervisor: Ignasi Martí

BIO:
Raluca is a psychologist, with a Master’s in Applied Anthropology, Health and Community Development, and a PhD at the University of Salamanca in 2019. Her thesis revolves around the models of intervention with homeless people in Spain. After doing her PhD, she has participated in different research from the University of Salamanca. In 2021 she has received the Postdoctoral Advance Fellowship 2021 - STAR-UBB at Babes-Bolyai University in Romania, to develop research on access to health of Roma communities. She also has experience in the third sector, in humanitarian aid and cooperation projects in Spain, Dominican Republic and Colombia. She is currently a Postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Social Innovation at Esade Business School since November 2022, and a member of the Institute´s Decent Housing Observatory, working with Ignasi Marti. Her research interests include homelessness and housing-led methodologies, social and residential exclusion, ethnic minorities and cultural diversity, applied anthropology, and mental health.

Supervisor: Anna Ginés

Supervisors: Rebeca Carpi & Joaquín Castañer

BIO:
Ariana obtained her PhD in Administrative Law at the University of Almería (Spain) in 2021 with the maximum honour: “cum laude”. Her field of expertise is IT law, which involves data protection, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, digital administration, and digital rights. She had two research stays: a predoctoral stay at the University of Brescia (Italy), and a postdoctoral stay at the Universidad Anaháuac Querétaro (Mexico), allowing her to get in touch with international research networks. Besides, she has several publications in national and international journals and books that reflect her research career. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher with the New Generation Fund by the European Union financed by the Ministry of Science and: «Non-bank financing for start-ups: risks and private-legal remedies». This project analyses the access to financing for startups outside the banking system, reviewing the business forms of credit and the contractual architecture of new credit categories such as convertible loans, crowdfunding and venture debts.

Supervisor: Ignasi Martí

BIO:
Juan Martín holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science (UBA), with master’s degrees in Politics and Government (UNSAM) and Public Management (BSM-UPF), and a PhD in Political Science (University of Granada). He is currently pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Social Innovation at Esade, working with Dr Ignasi Martí, researching topics related to immigration and social integration.

Supervisor: Tobias Hahn & Maja Tampe

BIO:
Natalia has over 15 years of expertise in social research and has contributed to over 10 academic research projects and authored 10 scientific publications. She holds a Licenciate degree in Sociology, and a Master’s degree in Communication and Culture both at University of Buenos Aires. She got a postgraduate scholarship from CONICET and has been teaching a sociology course. She has been a visiting researcher at Universidade de São Paulo, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, University of Deusto, and almost two years at University of Groningen with the mobility scholarships Erasmus Mundus Europlata, and the Sociedad Económica Barcelonesa de Amics del País (SEBAP). She is also an external Lecturer at Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, and Student Supervisor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. During her Ph.D. studies she investigated the interorganizational networks, collaboration, gender-based inequalities, and practices in social entrepreneurship and the social and solidarity economy in Barcelona with a Doctoral grant from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. As a postdoctoral researcher, she is now studying governance, collaboration, and practices in the regenerative agriculture field in the Recover Project "Regeneration, Collaboration and Governance: A Longitudinal Study of Regenerative Agriculture in Spain", funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Supervisor: Luca del Viva

BIO:
Filippo holds a Phd in Statistics and Data Science. During his PhD, as an active member of the CefES research group, his research focused on the field of game theory, in particular on the design of mathematical models for the analysis of mass uprisings phenomena. In parallel, he had the opportunity to work on database management and the application of quantitative statistical models for real cases with various programming languages in several interdisciplinary academic and corporate projects. He is currently  a MSCA candidate and a researcher associated to the GREF research group and collaborates on several projects led by Prof. Luca Del Viva, ranging from the temporal investigation of the factors influencing the level of risk and financing strategies in the banking world to the study of the causes of interest rate variation in the Repo market. Given his expertise of statistical methods and programming languages, his role is focused on data management, the design of metrics and the specification of statistical models for project purposes.

Supervisors: Marc Esteve & Angel Saz

BIO:
Master’s in Data Analytics and PhD in Economics from the University of Granada in 2021. Main research focus is on housing price analysis, tourism analysis and pricing models in both markets, with the application of advanced analytical techniques. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU and the Generalitat de Catalunya. The project aims to analyse the main boards of directors at both Spanish and European level, focusing on revolving doors with the public sector and the influence on profits.

Supervisor: Jan Brinckmann 

BIO: Ioannis has studied automation engineering and carries a MSc in advanced industrial and manufacturing systems. He has more than ten years of hands-on experience in industrial automation research and development. The last years is working in European Union funded research projects. As part of the Esade Entrepreneurship Institute, Ioannis works on research and development of innovative business models for the hydrogen valley sector linked to the Castill y Leon hydrogen valley development.

Supervisor: Núria Agell

BIO:
Jennifer is a postdoc at the Institute for Data Driven Decisions. She collaborates with Dr. Núria Agell at EsadeD3. Her research explores geopolitical actors, their relationships and perceptions using world news, and ranking items based on customer reviews. To accomplish this, in those groups she is working on methods to analyze and synthesize text sentiment to facilitate the comparison among groups for both use cases. In the future, they hope to expand on these models and improve their interpretability. 

Supervisor: Katharina Schmid

Supervisor: Frank Wiengarten

BIO:
Daniel Ruzza is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow within the Business Network Dynamics (BuNeD) research group. His Marie Curie project, SustainableCommodities (Grant Agreement No. 101209256), examines the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agricultural commodity supply chains, with a particular focus on the implications of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The project is supervised by Professor Frank Wiengarten.
Beyond agricultural supply chains, his research also explores animal welfare and blockchain technologies in supply chain management. Daniel holds a PhD in Business and Management from Luiss Guido Carli University. Before joining ESADE, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Bocconi University and worked as a consultant at EY.

Supervisors: Ruth Aguilera & Mario Lara

BIO: 
Nestor holds a Ph.D. in Economics, Management, and Organization from Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, an MRes and an MBA from ESAN University, and a BSc in Architecture from the National University of Engineering. Before doing his PhD, he began his career as an instructor of information technology (IT) and quantitative methods at ESAN Graduate School of Business. His research focuses on internal mechanisms of corporate governance in Ibero-America, such as ownership and board leadership structures, and their relationship to IT, such as IT investments and IT adoption, using quantitative methods to examine these fields in different contexts and sectors. Currently, Nestor is a Postdoctoral research fellow at the Esade Center for Corporate Governance, where his recent studies focus on the transition from executives to board directors and board committee dynamics. He also has academic membership in the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and the International Corporate Governance Society (ICGS). He is also an Adjunct Professor at ESAN Graduate School of Business. Member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Economics and Development (JED), the Corporate Governance and Organizational Behavior Review (CGOBR), and the Journal of Cases on Information Technology (JCIT). Former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science (2021-2023).

Supervisor: George Chondrakis

BIO:
Patrik studies his PhD in Education at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra and he holds an M.A. degree in Education and a Master’s degree in Public Administration. He was teaching Business-related courses at CPU Nitra, Slovakia. Patrik is a Postdoc Researcher in Entrepreneurial Education at Esade Entrepreneurship Institute. His research interests revolve around the intersection between labor market expectations and higher education. His research looks at impact of mentors and mentorship programs on early-stage startups and their founders from different aspects.

Supervisor: Vicente Bermejo

BIO:
Matthew obtained a PhD in Machine Learning Applications in Economics at the Universidad Complutense Madrid and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Esade. His research focuses on Machine Learning and Generative AI in Finance. He previously worked at IESE Business School, Esade Business School, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and as a Data Science Consultant in the Advanced Analytics (Financial Advisory) department at Deloitte, Spain. He has publications in Nature journals such as Journal of Scientific Data and Journal of Scientific Reports and journals in Machine Learning such as, Journal of Expert Systems with Applications and Computational Economics.

Supervisor: Annachiara Longoni

Supervisor: Núria Agell

BIO: 
Konstantina is a linguist, with a MSc in Brain and Cognition and a PhD in Biomedicine from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Her previous research has focused on language acquisition in early infance and how humans understand speech in different modalities and social contexts. She joined Esade recently as a post-doctoral researcher through the Investigo Programme funded by the European Union. Konstantina collaborates with Professor Núria Agell from the EsadeD3 Institute for Data-Driven Decisions. Her research focuses on designing innovative experimental work to acquire data within the Esade community. She is currently working on two multidisciplinary projects. The first is on the effects of cause-related marketing and the second one on the drivers behind food waste behavior.  

Supervisor: Núria Agell

BIO:
Nil Agell Llusà holds a degree in Mathematical Engineering in Data Science from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Throughout his academic journey, he has developed a strong foundation in data analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, with a special focus on model analysis and computations. In addition to his formal education, Nil has gained practical experience working as a data scientist at B2Brouter, where he supported the marketing and financial departments by analyzing key business data. 
Currently, Nil is a research assistant at Esade Business School's Data-Driven Decisions Institute (EsadeD3). In this role, he applies his expertise in data science and Python programming to support researchers across various projects. His contributions include web scraping, text analysis of survey results using natural language processing (NLP) and developing machine learning and deep learning models for medical prediction.

Supervisor: Ivanka Visnjic

BIO:
Nora Aisa Driouchi completed her bachelor's degree in International Business at the University of Barcelona (UB), with a minor in Risk Management for Financial Institutions from VU Amsterdam. Her bachelor’s thesis on the impact of fintech as a tool for financial inclusion in the competitive landscape of traditional banking, explores the transformative role of fintech in the financial sector of emerging markets by focusing on the case of Kenya. Her research interests span multiple areas including (digital) innovation, sustainable development, disruptive technologies, and the impact of climate change on business and society. Nora is currently a Research Assistant under Dr Ivanka Visnjic, where she supports the development of research papers, case studies and managerial articles focused on business model innovation, open innovation, sustainability-oriented strategy transformation of incumbent firms, and innovation management. Beyond research, she also supports the creation of engaging teaching materials and content that bridge current business trends with research outputs.

Supervisor: Jordi Trullén

BIO: 
Joanna works as a Research Assistant at ESADE on a project exploring talent management practices in Spain's large enterprises, led by Jordi Trullén (ESADE). She holds a PhD in Economics and Business from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), as well as a bachelor's degree in Career Counselling and HR Consulting and a master’s in Cognitive Science from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland. Currently she works also as a Postdoctoral Researcher on the EU-funded project, called BEAGLE, at the URV. She specializes in qualitative research and has teaching experience in Sociology of Work and Qualitative Research Methods at the URV.

Supervisor: Ángel Saz

BIO: 
Dario Arjomandi is a Research Assistant at EsadeGeo, where he works in research projects and publications on European economic policy, industrial policy and trade. He is also a researcher at the Global Governance Forum, working on the UN Charter reform project. He holds a BSc in Global Governance, Economics and Legal Order from Esade with a traineeship at the European Parliament (Committees of Environment and Development), as well as a postgraduate on EU external action. He regularly writes for Spanish newspapers like El País, Agenda Pública or Ethic on global inequalities, political economy, development and humanitarian affairs and philosophy. He is also a member of the youth association Equipo Europa and collaborated with the Cercle d’Economia.

Supervisor: Angel Castiñeira

BIO:
BIO: Joan is an Investigo research assistant at the Cátedra Liderazgos y Sostenibilidad at Esade. During the summer of 2023, he held a position as a research assistant with the Climate and Environment group at the Johns Hopkins University - Pompeu Fabra University (JHU-UPF) Public Policy Center. His academic background includes an MA degree in Current Democracies: Nationalism, Federalism, and Multiculturalism from Pompeu Fabra University. For his master’s thesis, he explored issues of identity and State (mis)recognition within the European Roma community around the work of Charles Taylor. Prior to this, he pursued postgraduate studies as a data analyst at Barcelona University and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Supervisor: Toni Roldán

BIO: 
Jimena Contreras is a research analyst at EsadeEcPol and has worked on various projects related to labour economics and public policies. Before joining EsadeEcPol, she was a research assistant at the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), where she took part in the evaluation of the Minimum Vital Income (IMV) in Spain. Her work included collecting, cleaning, and analysing data from the 17 autonomous communities to assess the overlap between the IMV and regional minimum income schemes, as well as their impact on the beneficiary population.
Before beginning her master’s studies, she worked at the Research and Projection Institute on Economy and Plural Society (IDIES) at Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala, where she contributed to projects on inequality, poverty, and the labour market.
Jimena holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Rafael Landívar University and a master’s degree in economics and public policy from the Barcelona School of Economics (BSE).

Supervisor: Jorge Galindo

BIO:
Lucia Cobreros is a researcher at EsadeEcPol, focused on Education Economics and with a great interest in the fields of Health Economics and Gender Economics. She studied her undergraduate in Economics at Universidad de Cantabria and holds a Master’s in Industrial and Market Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Currently, she is finishing a Master’s in Education at UNED and pursuing a PhD in Economics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Previously, she worked as a pre-doctoral researcher at Banco de España and at the Centre for Monetary and Financial Studies. Over the last year, she has published impact analyses from EsadeEcPol, including an in-depth take on equity in the education system based on PISA data (co-authored with Lucas Gortazar), a pioneering study of family spending on school supplies and the scholarships that help to compensate for it (co-authored with Ángel Martínez and Lucas Gortazar), an analysis of the rise in Selectividad grades with a unique database of university entrance grades (co-authored with Juan Manuel Moreno and Lucas Gortazar), and an analysis of the deterioration of primary care (co-authored with Carlos Sunyer).

Supervisor: Laura Guillén

BIO:
Mahal De La Durantaye is a Research Assistant at Esade within the Leadership Development Research Center (GLEAD). She holds a degree in Neuroscience and Global Health, with a minor in Psychology from the University of Toronto. Before joining Esade, Mahal developed fitness programs aimed at enhancing cognitive development. Her current research interests include the gut-brain matrix, gender diversity, neurodiversity, and sports-related projects. At Esade, she has contributed to projects on AI feedback and gender diversity and is currently involved in an age diversity initiative with Merck ES to develop an age diversity index. Additionally, she is working with the Great Run Company (GRC) on predictive leadership measures for runners. Alongside her research, Mahal is developing an introductory neuroscience course to improve the uptake of mental health initiatives, enhance athlete careers, and support cognitive development.

Supervisor: Rebeca Carpi

BIO:
Nohaila is a research assistant at Esade Law School, attached to the Vice-Deanship of Research, which supports the law research groups. She holds a Law degree from the University of Girona and a Master's degree in Intellectual Property from Carlos III University of Madrid. Her research interests include civil and commercial law.

Supervisor: Angel Saz

BIO:
Juan N. García-Nieto Tiana has been a Researcher at EsadeGeo and GLIGP since 2023, where he has mainly worked on projects on global governance and European public policy. He has also written articles and op-eds in outlets such as Atalayar.com, The National Interest and Emerging Europe. He previously worked at the Union for the Mediterranean in Barcelona and the Cato Institute in Washington, DC. He holds a MSc in International Politics from SOAS, University of London, and a Bachelor’s in law and Global Governance from Esade.  

Supervisor: Carolina Villegas

BIO:
Madalena Gaspar is an PhD candidate in Economics, Finance and Management at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master in Economics with a major in Macroeconomic Policy from Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics. In 2021, her master thesis "Resource misallocation in Portugal: Between sectors misallocation and intersectoral linkages" was selected as one of the best dissertations about the Portuguese economy by Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos and the Bank of Portugal. Before joining Esade, she was a research fellow at Católica Lisbon's Center of Economics for Prosperity where she worked on several projects assessing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on poverty and inequality. Her research interests focus on the role of firm dynamics and the quality of resource allocation on macroeconomic outcomes. Her work in this field includes a project on technology diffusion and business dynamism co-authored with Prof. Andrea Caggese, Prof. Carolina Villegas-Sanchez, and Robert Wojciechowski.

Supervisor: Carlo Sala

BIO: 
Yuanxi He.holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and a Master’s degree in Quantitative Finance from the Università di Bologna, and is currently finishing a Master’s degree in Advanced Mathematics at the Universitat de Barcelona.
Yuanxi He is conducting research under the supervision of Dr. Carlo Sala in the field of mathematical finance, with a particular focus on the relationship and predictability of stock markets through option data, specifically short-term maturity options. His work consists in analysing their characteristics, efficiency measures, stochastic pricing kernels, option-implied prices, and volatility, using MATLAB and Python.

Supervisor: Jordi Nin

Bio: 
Edmond is a Ph.D. graduate in Data-Driven Decision Making with a focus on the behavioral implications of artificial intelligence deployment from Esade Business School. He also holds an MBA and a B.Sc. in Business from Lebanese American University. Prior to his doctoral studies, Edmond accumulated substantial research experience, resulting in multiple publications in areas such as dysfunctional audit behavior and service marketing, alongside significant professional experience in operations, sales, and management roles across private, non-governmental, and family-owned organizations in Lebanon. His recent research lies at the intersection of technology and decision-making, with a particular emphasis on human–AI collaboration, task dynamics, technological mediation, and consumer attitudes and behavior. This work examines the psychological and contextual determinants shaping how individuals perceive and engage with AI systems in recommendation, education, and collaborative decision-making contexts and has led to multiple collaborations and publications with international co-authors.

Supervisor: Laura Guillén and François Collet

Bio: 
Yuqi is a PhD student and research assistant at the Leadership Development Research Center (GLEAD). His research focuses on 1) leadership, particularly leader narcissism, leader aging, and the psychological processes underlying leadership emergence, and 2) morality, including moral absolutism and moral relativism. Methodologically, he works with experiments, surveys, and large-scale text analysis.
His co-authored work with his supervisors has received multiple awards, including Best Paper Proceedings at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (2024). His research has been published in journals such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and has been featured in magazines including Psychology Today.
Outside of academia, Yuqi is an active tennis player and enjoys competing in the ITF Masters World Tour events.

Supervisor: Maja Tampe

BIO: 
Andrea is a data scientist and researcher with over 6 years experience in data analysis and AI. She holds a licentiate degree in Physics (Universidad de Zaragoza) and a MSc in Astronomy and Cosmology (Leiden University), where she published a paper using neural networks for cosmology. As a data scientist, she has worked in a startup (the PI) recommending climate solutions for cities, and in the renewable energies sector (Eneco) helping companies become more sustainable. She’s currently focused on ecosystem restoration, working as a researcher at the Department of Social Sciences at Esade. Her research focuses on understanding the transition to regenerative agriculture with text-based analysis, studying the different actors' perspectives as well as their enablers and obstacles in the transition.

Supervisor: Jorge Galindo

BIO:
Ángel Martínez Jorge is an economist at EsadeEcPol. He holds a degree in Economics with a major in Economic Analysis from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and a master's degree in Applied Economic Analysis from the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. Before joining EsadeEcPol, he participated as a research assistant in the Spending Review II of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (Airef), within the framework of the comprehensive evaluation of the air discount for residents. His research interests focus on the causal evaluation of the effects of public policies, a line of research in which he has actively participated within EsadeEcPol with evaluations such as the fuel discount, the VAT rebate on food or the VAT hike on sugar-sweetened beverages. Additionally, he collaborates weekly with the Sunday supplement of the newspaper El Mundo.

Supervisor: Jorge Galindo

BIO:
Javier Martínez Santos is an economist at EsadeEcPol, specializing in public policy evaluation and data analysis. He holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of A Coruña and a master's degree in Economic Analysis from the University of Santiago de Compostela. In addition, he is currently pursuing a PhD program in applied microeconomics on the evaluation of different public policies related to urban economy and transport. Before joining ESADE she has experience as a research assistant in different projects of analysis of local labor markets and in a Randomized Control Trial (RCT). Once at EsadeEcPol, she has focused on the analysis of large amounts of data and the evaluation of public policies, including the Policy Brief published in EsadeEcPol on the effects of the VAT reduction on basic food products on the prices of these products in large Spanish supermarkets.

Supervisor: Lisa Hehenberger

BIO:
Helena holds a degree in Business Administration and Management (Esade) and a Master's in International Studies and Cooperation (University of Barcelona). She is currently finishing a Master's in Circular Economy and Sustainability (International University of Valencia). She has been part of the Spanish team of the European Social Enterprise Monitor (Euclid Network) and has collaborated on a research project on Impact Investment in Spain. Currently, Helena is mainly involved in the Erasmus+ Social X-Change project, in which ECSI is leading the research on the topic of Impact Management and Measurement.

Supervisor: Angel Saz

BIO:
Ana has been a Research Assistant at EsadeGeo since September 2022. She holds a degree in International Studies from Autonomous University of Madrid and a Master’s degree in International Relations and African Studies from the same institution. At EsadeGeo, she has worked as a speechwriter and research assistant to President Javier Solana. Her research interests focus primarily on Global South dynamics, specifically the Middle East and North Africa region, migrations, social movements and human rights.

Supervisor: Lisa Hehenberger

BIO:
Teresa Picardo is a Researcher at the Esade Center for Social Impact. Now she is involved in research in the field of impact investing. As a philosopher and economist, she initiated her professional career working on an economic development project for the benefit of an association of smallholder producers in Cambimba (Colombia). After graduating with a master's in quantitative economic analysis, she worked at Afi as a consultant in the fields of sustainable finance and public finance, as well as public policy evaluation. She has developed projects related to the integration of sustainability criteria into the strategy, product design and reporting for different public and private financial institutions -following different market guidelines and the EU Taxonomy-. She has delivered trainings on the integration of the EU Taxonomy into the strategy and operations of private credit institutions and a national promotional bank. She has offered advisory services with regard to sustainability financial instruments with volumes ranging between €500M and €1,500M (i.e. sustainability bonds/loans, sustainability linked bonds/loans).

Supervisor: Lisa Hehenberger

BIO: 
Arnau Picón is a Researcher at the Esade Center for Social Impact, where he works on different projects aimed at evaluating the impact of grant-making foundations and strengthening impact management practices in the impact ecosystem. He combines this position with consultancy services in impact management, impact strategy and capacity building, supporting social enterprises, foundations and other capital providers in the design and implementation of their impact management strategies.
He has also conducted consultancy research projects supporting ecosystem-building organizations, such as Impact Europe, Social Value International, and Finance for Peace. In the past, he worked for five years at Impact Europe, where he fostered impact management practices among capital providers through research and capacity building.

Supervisor: Matteo Prato

BIO: 
Raquel holds a PhD in Physics (Universidad de Barcelona, 2019) and a PhD in Management Science (ESADE, 2025) and has been a member of the ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute from 2019 until 2025, where she leveraged quantitative tools to study social and organizational phenomena. Her research examines the mechanisms and social dynamics that shape biased evaluations and inequality, with the goal of fostering more meritocratic organizations. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Strategy at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Supervisor: Lisa Hehenberger

BIO:
Laura Reijnders is a Project Manager and Researcher at the Esade Center for Social Impact. Her work mainly focuses on philanthropies, and she focuses on the topics of impact measurement and management and the governance of impact in foundations. More specifically, she has been managing the Community of Practice on Impact Measurement and Management for foundations from all over Europe since fall 2020. Before working at Esade, Laura worked both as a part-time communications professional in an international NGO and as a freelance consultant and facilitator in The Netherlands. She focused on a variety of themes including trust-building, sustainable living with an emphasis on food safety, renewable energy, and personal development through experiential learning. In her work as a facilitator, she focused on deepening the understanding of assumptions, beliefs, and values that shape our frames of reference. She completed her BA in Communications at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht and her MSc in Culture, Organization and Management from University VU in Amsterdam with a focus on Culture and Identity in Organizations.

Supervisor: Jordi Nin

BIO:
Carles Riera is a researcher and educator with a strong background in computer science and artificial intelligence. He earned his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the Universitat de Barcelona and later obtained a master's degree in AI from UPC, pursuing a PhD in Deep Learning at Universitat de Barcelona. Riera has been involved in both industry and academic research, collaborating with startups specializing in computer vision while contributing to research in core deep learning. His research focuses on innovative methods for training deep networks, exploring approaches that do not rely on residual connections or batch normalization. He has proposed novel activation functions, zero initialization techniques, and has explored the Lottery Ticket Hypothesis. His academic interests span a wide range of low-level deep learning topics, including network pruning, initialization strategies, new architectures, optimizers, and knowledge distillation. Since 2019, Carles has been a lecturer at Esade, where he teaches data science, Python programming, AI, and statistics. He is currently working on a research project at Esade focused on detecting fake news on Twitter/X

Supervisor: Ignasi Martí

BIO:
Joan holds a degree in Political Science from Pompeu Fabra University, a Master’s in Sociology, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Data Analysis from the University of Barcelona. His professional experience includes working as a research assistant on projects related to homelessness, as well as serving as an advisor in the City Council of the Eixample district in Barcelona, where he applied his knowledge in public policy and social analysis. Since 2023, Joan has been a research assistant at the Decent Housing Observatory, part of the Institute for Social Innovation, collaborating with researchers Ignasi Martí and Raluca Cosmina. His research interests include homelessness, poverty, and housing policies, with a focus on social impact and strategies to improve access to decent housing.

Supervisor: Jonathan Wareham

Bio:
Bianca holds a First Honours BSc Degree in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Leicester. Her academic journey continued with an MPhil in Neuroscience, Psychology, and Behaviour, supported by a grant from the European Regional Development Fund and Lnet Digital. Investigating biometric tools in e-commerce, her focus encompassed eye tracking and facial expression analysis in marketing, with an anticipated completion by the summer of 2024. Beyond academia, she actively contributed to the scientific community as a coordinator for the ReproducibiliTea Leicester Journal Club. Her passion for bridging cognitive science, technology, and innovation was showcased in a compelling talk at Pint of Science UK 2023 titled "Neuromarketing - the secret to the customer's brain or a gamble." During the years she has spent in England, Bianca also served as a Research Assistant for a spatial navigation study and contributed to Patient Preference Information research involving ultra-wide-angle optical coherence tomography (OCT) implementation. Currently, as a Research Assistant working with Prof. Jonathan Wareham and Dr. Angelo Romasanta, she delves into the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in reshaping the pharmaceutical industry.

Supervisor: Marie Vandendriessche

BIO: 
Laia is a research and teaching assistant at EsadeGeo - Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics. She holds a Master’s Degree in International Security from IBEI and is currently completing a Master’s in Legal Practice at UOC. She also holds a Double Bachelor’s Degree in Law and Global Governance from Esade. At EsadeGeo, she contributes to research projects on the European Union’s foreign and security policy, and works on Horizon Europe projects funded by the European Commission, and assists in the organisation of the MBA’s Business, Government and Society course. Before joining EsadeGeo, Laia completed two internships at the Catalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs: one in the Multilateral Relations department -based in Barcelona- and another one in the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia before the European Union, in Brussels.

Supervisor: Jordi Vinaixa / María José de la Maza

BIO:
Winnie is graduated in Management and Bioengineering in 2012 from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). She worked for more than five years as a Project Manager for industrial projects, designing chocolate factories, amongst others. She is currently a Research Assistant at Esade, focusing on innovative business models for different solutions around renewable energy and electricity grid problems. In that context, she worked together with Professor Jordi Vinaixa and postdoctoral researcher Hasan Muslemani on a European Horizon2020 project, EU-SysFlex, working with different European partners on the business models and exploitation of five selected project results.

Supervisor: Ángel Saz

BIO: 
Cristina Vicente Ruiz is Research Assistant on Energy, East Asia Geopolitics and EU-Japan-China relations at EsadeGeo – Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, Ramon Llull University. She is also Non-Resident Fellow at Observatory of Asia, UFV.
Her MA thesis focused on The Geopolitics of China's Energy Transition. A Japan case study on policy reform to tackle population ageing in the post-Welfare Internationalism era constituted her Summa Cum Laude BA thesis. 
Previously, Cristina worked at IE Global Policy Center (GPC), where she was Project Manager of Transatlantic Bridge in collaboration with Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins SAIS and PSIA Sciences Po. She was an intern at General Subdirectorate of East and Southern Asia at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, under the Spain-Japan relations Chief of Area. 
Cristina has a BA in International Studies from UAM, an MA in International Economics and Development at UCM as well as an MA in Research in Economics at UNED. She speaks Spanish, English and Japanese.

Supervisor: Katharina Schmid

BIO: 
Chao is a PhD candidate in Organizational Behavior at Esade. His research explores how social norms influence workplace decisions, specifically in negotiations and HR. Chao has a diverse international background, having studied in China, Spain, the US, and the UK, including a recent visiting fellowship at London Business School. He holds degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Nanjing University. In his free time, he stays agile through tennis and surfskating.

Supervisor: David Murillo

BIO:
Mireia holds a PhD in sociology (UB). She has worked as Associate Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Barcelona at the same time that she was a freelance research consultant. Nowadays she is a researcher associated to both the Business Network Dynamics (BuNeD) research group and also to the Institute for Social Innovation (ISS). She is also teaching Sociology in the BBA at Esade as an academic collaborator. She has extensive experience as a researcher in various projects both at a European and national level. And is currently involved in two research projects: “Supporting compliance and better OSH practice through leverage in market-based initiatives (Lift-OSH)” lead by Annachiara Longoni as well as the project about Food Waste, Food Banks and digitalization lead by David Murillo.