Change at the top, as Soda succeeds Busacca

SDA Bocconi School of Management has a new Dean: Giuseppe Soda, a professor from the Department of Management and Technology, succeeds Bruno Busacca, who had been in charge since 2012.

"Years ago we set out to achieve an important goal: an increasingly international School of Management, capable of conducting rigorous, relevant, and multidisciplinary studies; committed to translating this knowledge into innovative, high-level programs that can have a big impact on people, businesses and institutions.
We believe that SDA Bocconi School of Management can compete at a global level, be ranked among the best in the world, attract and support the growth of young talent, and help managers face the challenges of the future. We want SDA Bocconi to be increasingly close to businesses and institutions, to engage with the business world, and to encourage innovative responses to the big issues of competitiveness, growth and sustainability.
These goals are the common denominators of our mandates as Deans of SDA Bocconi and are fully reflected in the strategic plan that will see us move to our new and innovative campus. An ambitious plan that has been made possible by the calibre and dedication of our people, and by our values”, say Giuseppe Soda and Bruno Busacca.

The new Dean, whose name was put forward by Rector Gianmario Verona, was appointed by the School’s Board of Directors and will hold the position for the next two years.

49-year-old Giuseppe Soda, who was born in Gorgonzola (Milan), has a Ph.D from Bocconi University and completed his post-doctoral studies at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Professor of Business Administration and Social Network Analysis. Prior to this appointment he had been the head of the Department of Management and Technology since 2013. From 2001 to 2013 he was a member of the SDA Bocconi School of Management Executive Committee, where he led the Claudio Dematté Research Division (2008-2013) and the Area Organizzazione e Personale (2001-2007).

Giuseppe Soda’s research is internationally recognized and has been published in major management journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Organization, Academy of Management Annals, Journal of Management, Organization Studies. He is considered one of the leading experts in the "Dynamics of Networks" and among the scholars who have innovated organizational structuring methodologies through the expansion of network analysis techniques. Soda’s research looked at the role of organizational structures in different sectors of the economy, their alignment with the strategy and the dynamics a company’s internal and external networks. He is also a member of the editorial board of several international academic journals, and was Senior Editor for Organization Science. He is currently Deputy Director of the magazine Economia & Management, and oversees the SDA Bocconi Book Series - Leading Management.

In addition to Giuseppe Soda (Department of Management and Technology), the new Dean of SDA Bocconi, the team of Rector Gianmario Verona, who took up his role on November 1st, also includes Annalisa Prencipe (Department of Accounting), Head of the Undergraduate School. Holding their current positions for the next two years are Antonella Carù (Department of Marketing), as Dean of the Graduate School; Stefano Liebman (Department of Law), at the School of Law; and Pierpaolo Battigalli (Department of Decision Sciences), at the PhD School.

Among the Pro-rectors, we have some new faces and some new appointments, but also the establishment of two new Pro-rectors: for General Affairs and for the Implementation of the Strategic Plan. Stefano Caselli (Department of Finance) will continue to oversee Internationalization. Bruno Busacca (Department of Marketing) and Alberto Grando (Department of Management and Technology), who were already part of Sironi’s team, are taking up new roles and overseeing respectively the Development and Alumni Relations, and the Implementation of the Strategic Plan. Finally, three new names: Marco Ottaviani (Department of Economics) will be the Pro-rector for Research; Fausto Panunzi (Department of Economics) will oversee General Affairs, while Francesco Billari, currently at Oxford University, will be the Pro-rector for Human Resources from next February (when he will become a member of the Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management). In the meantime, his position will be held by the Rector.

SDA Bocconi School of Management