Elena Beccalli will be rector of
Rome's Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore from 1st July for
the four-year term 2024-2028, its first female leader.
After being appointed by the University's Board of Directors,
which convened Thursday, Professor Beccalli succeeds Professor
Franco Anelli.
She is the first woman appointed to this role in the history of
the university.
The decision of the Board of Directors follows the appointment
of Professor Elena Beccalli, Dean of the School of Banking,
Finance, and Insurance Sciences, by the University's 12 Faculty
Councils on 22 May, with 636 preferences out of a total of 685,
corresponding to around 93% of those voting.
"Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore is a 'universal' academic
institution by vocation, where dialogue and debate are open,
free, interdisciplinary, and oriented towards the creation of
networks and strategic alliances," Beccalli said in thanking the
academic staff and the Board of Directors, which appointed her
to lead the institution.
"It is a University that can offer ‒ with accuracy, creativity,
courage ‒ a forward-looking approach to contemporary challenges,
thanks to the coordinated efforts of its vibrant academic
community.
"Università Cattolica should have the capacity to renew itself,
implementing a process of innovation based on consolidated and
recognised roots", since, she added, "it is called upon to
position itself as a reference centre with a strong
international outlook, for quality teaching and research, so as
to nurture the virtuous circle typical of a research
university".
The intention - she continued - "is to ensure that our
university is a natural source from which civil society,
institutions, the labour market and, furthermore, the Italian
and universal Church can draw.
"A model that can represent the best university 'for' the
world". Regarding the future of the Degree programmes, Prof.
Beccalli emphasised that "the recognition of the quality of the
educational offering will focus, with a long view, on the value
of the interdisciplinary hybridisation of the programmes and the
innovativeness required by social transformations and the world
of work.
"All of this with the priority, in the wake of our tradition, of
care for students and enhancing their study experience in
welcoming, beautiful, functional, and technologically advanced
spaces".
Elena Beccalli, a 50-year-old alumna of Università Cattolica del
Sacro Cuore, is the ninth Rector of the University, preceded by
founder Father Agostino Gemelli (1921-1959), Francesco Vito
(1959-1965), Ezio Franceschini (1965-1968), Giuseppe Lazzati
(1968-1983), Adriano Bausola (1983-1998), Sergio Zaninelli
(1998-2002), Lorenzo Ornaghi (2002 -2012), and most recently
Franco Anelli (2013-2024).
Full Professor of Financial Intermediaries in the School of
Banking, Finance and Insurance Sciences, where she has held the
position of Dean since 2014, Beccalli is a research associate of
the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the London
School of Economics (UK), where previously she was 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 was a visiting professor at the Singapore Institute of
Management and at the China Center for Economic Research at
Beijing University.
Currently, Professor Beccalli is the Director of the Research
Centre on Cooperative Mutual Banking at Università Cattolica del
Sacro Cuore.
She is the President of the Italian section of the European
Society for Banking and Financial 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
the Journal of Financial Management, Markets, and Institutions.
She is also 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 Episcopal Conference. She was coordinator of the path
leading to the Document Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones,
promoted by Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in
collaboration with the Archdiocese of Milan.
She was senior expert of the Finance and Humanity Village in the
context of The Economy of Francesco.
She also participated in the drafting of the document Mensuram
Bonam.
Her main areas of scientific focus relate to the banking sector
analysed from the perspective of industrial organisation, with
particular attention to the themes of technology, efficiency,
cooperation and financial biodiversity. In recent years, her
studies have focused on issues of ethics and inclusiveness,
sustainability, artificial intelligence and women's leadership.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
