Raffaella Saporito

Raffaella Saporito is an Associate Professor of Practice of Government, Health, and Not-for-Profit at SDA Bocconi School of Management.

At SDA Bocconi, she serves as the Director of program “People Management and Public Leadership” within the Government Academy. Previously, she was the Director of the Executive Master of Public Administration Management (EMMAP) and the Advanced Course of Public Administration Management (MAP). She has managed research and training projects for local and central public entities involved in strategy, organization, personnel and service management changes. She conducts teaching activities in both Italian and English in master's and executive courses.

Her research, training, and intervention activities focus on leadership and executive selection policies and tools, leadership models for the public sector, and methods for developing managerial and leadership skills in public administration. Between 2021 and 2022, she collaborated with the Italian Ministry for Public Administration on the public employment reform program under the NGEU initiative, specifically focusing on executive selection. She has served on numerous competition and selection boards for managerial and top positions and has been involved in performance evaluation teams for local and regional entities. She was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Italian National School of Administration.

Additionally, she studies public service management models and their implications in terms of sustainability and equity, with a specific focus on public housing, on which she conducts research in collaboration with local and regional public institutions and companies, industry associations, and independent funders. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Affordable Housing Observatory at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of the Polytechnic University of Milan and is the Principal Investigator of a grant from the Cariplo Foundation on housing services as a tool for reducing inequalities.

She is the author of books and articles published by Egea, Leuven University Press, IGI Global, Brookings, Springer, and the journals Azienda Pubblica, Rivista Italiana di Public Management, Giornale di Diritto Amministrativo, Economia & Management, and Teaching Public Administration. More popular articles on executive selection have been published in national top newspaper, such as Il Sole 24 Ore, La Repubblica, and the SDA Bocconi blog #ValorePubblico, of which she is the author. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Business School of the University of Edinburgh. Moreover, she is an ICF – ACTP certified coach and a member of the SDA Bocconi coaching team for the leadership skills development of master's students.

Raffaella earned her Bachelor's degree in International and Diplomatic Sciences from the University of Turin, the Diplôme Sciences PO from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, a Master's in Public Management from SDA Bocconi, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics and Public Administration from the University of Parma. She furthered her program design and development skills and teaching methodologies in executive education at Harvard Business School and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago. Raffaella's vision is "There is no change without learning, and no learning without change."