Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Experience

Luisa Alemany is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at London Business School. She was formerly at ESADE Business School and a Visiting Professor at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. She is also a Fellow at St Hugh’s College, Oxford University. Her main areas of interest are Entrepreneurial Finance, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurial Education, Business Angels, and Venture Philanthropy. She holds a MBA from Stanford University and a PhD in Economics and Business from Universidad Complutense (Madrid).

Luisa began her career as a Financial Analyst at Procter & Gamble in Madrid. She subsequently worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Co in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. Later, she worked at Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking Division, in the venture capital fund Europ@Web and as a Senior Associate of the American private equity fund The Carlyle Group, in its European buyout team.

Luisa Alemany was the director of the ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute for nine years (2009-2017) and the academic sponsor of ESADE BAN (Business Angels Network), that was awarded the Best BAN in Europe in 2016. She seats in the investment committee of two early stage investors and is involved in Rising Tide Europe I and II, the first European Women-only business angels’ fund. In the past, she was in the Board of EBAN, the European Business Angels Network.

Her research is published in top academic journals and she has written several books, the most recent being “Entrepreneurial Finance: The Art and Science of Growing Ventures” (Cambridge University Press, 2018), the first European textbook on the topic.

She has taught at the Master of Science, MBA and executive education level in different programs in London, Oxford, Barcelona, Madrid, Amsterdam, Milan, Miami, Mexico and Shanghai. She has received the Best Teacher Award 2017, ESADE’s Executive Master in Finance and her case “Scytl”, regarding exits options for investors, was honored Best Entrepreneurship Case Award by EFMD (2017).

Academic Focus

Julian’s main area of expertise is in the strategy and organisation of large corporations and he specialises in innovation. He brings the latest insights from the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship as well as his own consulting work. He has written 13 books and speaks regularly at business conferences. Professor Julian Birkinshaw was ranked 46th in the 2017 Thinkers50 list of the top global management thinkers.

Recent Clients

Rio Tinto, ABN Amro, UBS, Tata Group, Exxon.

Experience

Julian is a Fellow of the Advanced Institute of Management Research (UK), and the Academy of International Business. He co-founded the Management Innovation Lab, a unique partnership between academia and business to accelerate the evolution of management.

Academic Focus

Jeff teaches on the School’s entrepreneurship programmes.

Recent Clients

Consultant to international companies and banks, as well as the World Bank and European Union.

Experience

Was previously commercial director at UCL where he co-founded more than 30 technologybased businesses – many of them venture capital backed. Jeff is also a former president of both the UK and European University Technology Transfer Associations.

Experience

Following an education in business law, Jane spent eight years as an international credit analyst and corporate loan officer in the City of London.

After founding Business Plan Services (‘BPS’) in 1991, which helped companies for over 20 years with business planning and proposals for bank finance, business angel funds, venture capital and grants, Jane became one of the UK’s leading authorities on business planning. Jane is co-author of the leading book Successful Business Plans and was a guest speaker on BBC Radio 4 on the subject as well as giving regular talks at business conferences and workshops. Since joining London Business School in 2013, Jane has supported entrepreneurial students by developing and delivering initiatives such as the Entrepreneur Journey events programme and the Entrepreneur Mentor in Residence initiative. Jane also runs the School’s Incubator programme, working with the (formerly Deloitte) Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to provide a support package and space for the Incubator businesses as well as access to a full range of professional experts.

In addition Jane manages Enterprise 100, London Business School’s angel network, which she set up with faculty more than 16 years ago. The network provides early-stage funding for many of the School’s entrepreneurial ventures.

Experience

Rubina supports the entrepreneurship community of London Business School by developing and delivering an array of co-curricular initiatives. These initiatives include talks, workshops, pitch evenings, student competitions, conferences and digital projects. Rubina also manages the on-going cultivation of key relationships with alumni entrepreneurs as well as external institutions by identifying opportunities for collaboration.

Prior to joining the Institute, Rubina worked at the University of Bath as a Digital Communications Coordinator where she launched several digital initiatives and innovative marketing campaigns. Rubina is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and has a keen interest in upcoming trends in digital technologies. Rubina graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2011 with a BSc (Hons) in Business Management and has worked in academia ever since.

Experience

Eva is the Senior Programme and Communications Manager of the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, being responsible for conceiving and mapping activities to enhance its presence and profile. Eva's role is to initiate, develop and project manage the multiple outreach activities of the institute. These activities include the DeBrief newsletter, various events and award programmes. She developed London Business Schools' Real Innovation Awards programme which quickly became a highly regarded initiative with a global reach.

Eva focuses on increasing awareness of and interest in the entrepreneurship initiatives at London Business School. She is responsible for marketing and coordinating the Entrepreneur Mentor in Residence and Incubator Programmes and Entrepreneurs’ Journey events.

Prior to joining the Institute, Eva worked as a faculty assistant at LBS in the Strategy and Entrepreneurship department. Eva has also worked at various charities, where she helped organise events and assisted candidates in finding volunteering roles. She is passionate about entrepreneurship and digital marketing. Eva graduated from Plymouth University in 2010 with a first in BSc (Hons) in Business Management and she has an IDM Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing from The Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing.

Experience

Gina Maffucci is a member of the MBA2021 class. Prior to the MBA, she spent four years at Edelman, the largest communications firm in the world, specializing in corporate thought leadership and executive positioning. She has a passion for research and has helped companies across a variety of industries become leaders on topics core to their businesses. Over the summer, Gina worked with Bottleshot, a London-based cold brew coffee startup, to rebrand, define their values and achieve sales targets. At LBS, she is the Co-President of the Sailing Club and is supporting the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship with thought leadership including managing the LBS StartHub blog and social media.

Experience

At IIE, as part of the Founders Project, Akshat is working with numerous internal and external LBS stakeholders to build a validated database and network of LBS Alumni in entrepreneurship and venture capital globally. The goal of the project is to leverage LBS’ robust entrepreneurial community to uniquely position IIE as an important global hub for innovation. In our efforts to do so, Akshat will also help design engagement strategies so that IIE – and LBS as a whole – can benefit from the exceptional experiences of our alumni.