Marta Zava

Marta Zava is an Assistant Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurial Finance at SDA Bocconi School of Management and conducts research (within the MUSA – PNRR program, funded by the Italian Government) and teaching activities at the Department of Finance of Bocconi University. She serves as Council Member in the Board of the Complex System Society, and as a Consultant for the European Central Bank. Further, Marta covers research and advisory roles in major domestic public and private institutions. Her PhD dissertation, “Venture Capital and Complex Systems” defended at the Goethe University (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) with the highest honors (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, complex systems, artificial intelligence applications to finance, tokenization and blockchain in finance, financial networks, capital markets, and banking. Notably, her work “How do Venture Capitalist become Influential?” received more than 30 talk invites. She works with co-authors across continents, regularly visiting other universities. Marta also recently published “The Science of Influencers and Superspreaders” (Springer, 2025), a book on artificial intelligence and network science to understand the forces that shape markets, politics, and fake news. Further, she 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 the fields of finance, venture capital, complex systems, and blockchain. Mentions go to the the Society for Financial Studies Cavalcade, the American Social Sciences Association Conference, 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, or giving TedX talks. She actively engages in policy debate and public outreach. Since 2024, she took charge of the “Venture Capital and Valuation” master course (EMIT) - an unicum in the European landscape. Since 2022, Marta has been a Professor of the Finance Lab (Summer School), the Pre-liquidity Events (CEMS), the ESG Supply Chain (CEMS), and the Luxury M&A (CEMS) courses at Bocconi University, for which she obtained impeccable evaluations. Since 2021, she has been teaching International Finance and Investment Banking in master's degree courses and had 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 Baffi-Carefin, and has collaborated with Confindustria, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Citi Ventures, Zurich Insurance, EssilorLuxottica, Algebris, BNP Paribas, and Richmont International, 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.