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New Rector for the Catholic University, Elena Beccalli takes office on 1 July

He will lead the University for the four-year period 2024-2028

20 June 2024

3' min read

Elena Beccalli will assume the role of Rector of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore as of 1 July for the next four-year period 2024-2028. Appointed by the Board of Directors of the University, which met today, Thursday 20 June 2024, Professor Beccalli succeeds professor Franco Anelli. She is the first woman to hold this position in the history of the University.

The Board's decision comes after the University's faculty members in the 12 Faculty Councils had nominated Professor Elena Beccalli, Dean of the Faculty of Banking, Finance and Insurance Sciences, on 22 May, with 636 out of a total of 685 preferences, corresponding to around 93% of those voting.

"The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart is by vocation a 'universal' university, where dialogue and confrontation are open, free, interdisciplinary, and oriented towards creating networks and strategic alliances. A University capable of offering - with rigour, creativity, courage - a contribution of thought to frontier issues, thanks to the coordination of the numerous and qualified initiatives of the academic community," said Professor Beccalli when thanking the teaching staff and the Board of Directors, which appointed her to lead the University.

"The Università Cattolica must have the ability to renew itself, implementing a process of innovation based on consolidated and recognised roots,' he added, 'because it is called upon to act as a reference pole, with a strong international projection, for quality teaching and research, so as to feed the virtuous circle typical of a research university. The intention, he continued, 'is to ensure that our university is a natural reservoir that civil society, institutions, the world of work, and last but not least the Italian and universal Church can draw on. A model that can represent the best university 'for' the world'.

Quattro rettrici per quattro università a Milano
Photogallery5 foto

Looking to the future of the courses of study, Professor Beccalli emphasised that "the recognition of the quality of the courses on offer will focus, with a long view, on the value of the interdisciplinary hybridisation of the courses of study and the innovativeness required by social transformations and the world of work. In keeping with our tradition, the priority will be to take care of the student and enhance his or her study experience in welcoming, beautiful, functional and technologically advanced spaces'.

Elena Beccalli, 50, an alumna of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, is the ninth Rector of the University: Founder Father Agostino Gemelli (1921-1959), Francesco Vito (1959-1965), Ezio Franceschini (1965-1968) previously held the post, Giuseppe Lazzati (1968-1983), Adriano Bausola (1983-1998), Sergio Zaninelli (1998-2002), Lorenzo Ornaghi (2002 -2012), Franco Anelli (2013-2024).

Full Professor of Economics of Financial Intermediaries in the Faculty of Banking, Finance and Insurance, where she has served as Dean since 2014, Elena Beccalli is a research associate of the Centre for Analysis of risk and regulation at the London School of Economics (UK), where she was previously also a tutorial fellow, lecturer and visiting professor. She is an academic fellow at the Centre for Responsible Banking Finance at the University of St Andrews. She has been a visiting professor at the Singapore Institute of Management and the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University.

He is director of the Cooperative Credit Research Centre of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. She is president of the Italian section of the European Association for Banking and Finance Law (AEDBF). She was a member of the board of directors of the Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA) and co-president of the European Financial Management Association. She is co-editor of Journal of financial management, markets and institutions as well as a contributing editor of Sole 24 Ore.

He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation. She is a member of the Expert Group on Socially Responsible Investment of the Italian Bishops' Conference. She was coordinator of the course on the Document Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones, promoted by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Milan. She was senior expert of the Village Finance and Humanity in the context of The Economy of Francis. She was also involved in the drafting of the document Mensuram Bonam.

His main areas of scientific interest relate to the banking sector analysed from the perspective of industrial organisation, with a focus on technology, efficiency, cooperation and financial biodiversity. In more recent years, his studies have focused on issues of ethics and inclusiveness, sustainability, artificial intelligence and women's leadership.

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