Developed in partnership with the Chief of Staff Association, the new program draws on SDA Bocconi's research in international management, regulatory environments, and European institutional dynamics.

SDA Bocconi School of Management and the Chief of Staff Association (CSA) have announced the launch of a new executive education program — the first in the world designed specifically to prepare chiefs of staff for the geopolitical dimensions of their role.
The program is available exclusively through SDA Bocconi and the CSA, and forms the third pillar of the Association's global education portfolio, alongside programs at the University of Oxford and Harvard Business School.

A program grounded in SDA Bocconi research
The CSA’s University of Oxford program focuses on the organizational impact a chief of staff drives – including alignment and transformation – and the Harvard Business School program builds the interpersonal skills needed to lead effectively, including negotiation, communication, and stakeholder management.
This new program with SDA Bocconi addresses the external environment: the geopolitical and institutional forces that shape every strategic decision a chief of staff supports.
    
It is grounded in The Chief of Staff Revolution: A European Viewpoint, a study developed by I.C.E – Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship with Deloitte, which tracked the diffusion and evolution of the chief of staff role across leading European organizations and identified geopolitical complexity as a defining challenge shaping the role today.

Drawing on SDA Bocconi's decades of research in international management, regulatory environments, and European institutional dynamics — and on faculty who work directly with global corporations, public institutions, and policymakers — the program gives chiefs of staff practical frameworks for navigating shifting trade relationships, regulatory divergence, political instability, and institutional change.

"Chiefs of staff sit at the intersection of organizational decision-making and the forces reshaping the world. SDA Bocconi has spent decades studying that intersection — in European institutions, in regulatory frameworks, in global business strategy. This program puts that research to work. We are proud to build it with the CSA."
Gimede Gigante, Director of the Program, SDA Bocconi School of Management

What participants receive
Participants who complete the program — including a capstone project assessing real strategic work within their own organization — will be awarded the Certified Chief of Staff® credential by the Chief of Staff Association. They will also receive a certificate of attendance from SDA Bocconi School of Management, ranked third in the world for custom executive education by the Financial Times.
On completion, participants receive six months of complimentary CSA membership and join the Association's certified community alongside alumni of the Oxford and Harvard Business School programs.

The experience
The program is delivered as a residential experience in Rome. Participants will attend a gala dinner and a visit      to the Vatican as part of the program. The residential format — including its extracurricular elements — reflects the CSA's approach at Oxford and Harvard Business School, where peer relationships and shared experiences are a deliberate part of the learning design.

"Chiefs of staff are operating in a world defined by geopolitical disruption, regulatory complexity, and institutional change. No executive education program has ever been designed specifically to prepare them for that reality. This program does. We are proud to be building it with SDA Bocconi, which has the European institutional proximity and research depth to make it genuinely world-class."
Trent Smyth, Chief Executive Officer, Chief of Staff Association

SDA Bocconi School of Management