Meet Gianfranco Gianfrate, a Professor of sustainable finance whose passion for practical research has put him at the heart of change

When he started his undergrad program in Business Administration at Bocconi University in Milan, Gianfranco had no intention of taking the corporate or academic route: “Initially, I wanted to be a journalist because I love writing,” he says. “I began collaborating with newspapers and magazines but quickly became disillusioned. I realized I could use writing as a means rather than an end.” 

He got the first taste of where his love of writing could take him right after earning his bachelor’s degree, when he took a research assistant position at Bocconi, which he held for a few months in 1999.

While academia offered freedom and sparked his interest in a scholarly career, Gianfranco sought practical experience in the topics he intended to research. He spent the next three years working as a business and financial analyst for high-profile consulting firms, delving into the rise of e-commerce and the dynamics of mergers and acquisitions. 

He then returned to Bocconi to embark on a PhD journey, exploring the reasons behind the malfunctioning of corporate democracy in Italy. His thesis, Shareholders’ coalitions and control contestability: the case of Italian voting trust agreements was published in 2006. Though he began lecturing in finance at Bocconi, Gianfranco postponed his postdoctoral academic career to gain further corporate experience outside Italy.

“The four years I spent as a manager at Hermes Investment Management in London were among the best of my life,” Gianfranco recalls. At Hermes, the primary manager for the British Telecom pension scheme, he was part of a young and international team, focusing on the Italian and Scandinavian markets, flying weekly to meet with CEOs and board members. He placed himself at the forefront of the changes in the European financial sector. Hermes was a pioneer in sustainable finance, shaping corporate governance and policy making at the highest levels. 

There, Gianfranco gains invaluable insights into integrating sustainability into businesses and investment practices. In 2009, he hosted the first-ever “United Nations for responsible investment” event. He also frequently engaged with the European Commission on these topics at a time when the global financial crisis had everyone wondering how to build a better future.

“It was absolutely fascinating to be at the start of it all”, he recalls. “To speak with executives for whom sustainability wasn’t even part of their vocabulary yet, to sow the seeds of change and to take on an active role from an investor’s perspective.”

For the long term, however, Gianfranco yearned to return to the slower pace of academia and the pioneering nature of research. In 2014, after a few years at Bocconi, he received the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 

Pursuing a Master’s in Public Administration, he proposed a groundbreaking study merging his two favorite subjects: corporate valuation and climate change. At the time, in 2014, this was a novel proposition, and Gianfranco quickly gained approval to study it in the most inspiring environment. “The discussions, the people—everything was extraordinary”, he explains. “One day, you could walk into a room and meet the Secretary General of NATO.” 

He developed innovative ideas for capturing the impact of climate on valuation and how companies could leverage this understanding to refine their strategies for raising capital. He co-published two books during that period: The Valuation of Financial Institutions (Wiley) (2) and Corporate Valuation: Measuring the Value of Companies in Turbulent Times (Wiley) (3).

Armed with a new degree and several publications in the Journal of Private Equity (4), Gianfranco returned to Europe. He first took a lecturer position at Erasmus University in Rotterdam before becoming a Professor of Finance at EDHEC in 2018. In his first year, he organized a major conference on climate finance in Paris to help put EDHEC on the map. He also developed new courses on sustainable finance, launched a popular MOOC elective, and continued his research on corporate valuation in the age of responsibility. 

Now a full-time academic, Gianfranco is deeply invested in understanding how corporations perceive climate risk and what they do internally to address it. Though he describes his academic contributions in very humble terms, his recent track record tells another story. In the last two years alone he tackled topics such as “The Agency of Greenwashing” (5) in The Journal of Management and Governance, the “Resilience of ESG firms during the Covid-19 crisis” (6) in The Journal of International Business Studies, and the “What’s in a shade? The market relevance of green bonds’ external reviews” (7) in The British Accounting Review.

Most notably, between 2019 and 2023 he contributed to the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), working on the integration of finance as part of the solutions. “Being involved in policy making is extremely important”, he explains. “Especially to fight greenwashing and further the dialogue between institutions and corporations. Companies and markets alone won’t help us achieve ambitious climate goals—there’s little incentive for them to do so today. Finance needs to be part of the solution, but we must stop believing it is the solution.”

On the teaching front, Gianfranco pushes students to rethink how to value a company and apply mathematical formulas. He shares his experience of the subjectivity involved — a “gut feeling” he hopes to instill in them. “I wouldn’t trade my job for anything,” he says. “I love the freedom of academia, the constant challenge of confronting new ideas, the sense of relevance from sharing my perspective with students, and the impact of the work we do.”

Key Dates

Since 2018: Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School, Nice (France)

2022 - 2025: EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute Research Director

2017 - 2018: Lecturer in Sustainable Finance, Erasmus University, Rotterdam (The Netherlands)

2014 - 2017: Giorgio Ruffolo Fellow, Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge (USA)

2008 - 2011: Manager, Hermes Investment Management, London (Great Britain)

2005 - 2014: Assistant Professor of Finance, Bocconi University, Milan (Italy)

2003 - 2006: PhD in Business Administration & Management, Bocconi University, Milan (Italy)

2002 - 2003: Financial Analyst, Deloitte Corporate Finance, Milan (Italy)

2000 - 2001: Business Analyst, Valdani Vicari & Associati, Milan (Italy)

1999 - 2000: Research Assistant, Bocconi University, Milan (Italy)

1999: Bachelor’s in Business Administration, Bocconi University, Milan (Italy)

To know more about Gianfranco Gianfrate

• Visit his EDHEC Business School webpage

• Go to his Google Scholar webpage

• Visit his LinkedIn profile

References

(1) Shareholders’ coalitions and control contestability: the case of Italian voting trust agreements (2007) Corporate Ownership & Control. Volume 4, Issue 4,  Summer 2007 - https://virtusinterpress.org/IMG/pdf/cocv4i4c4p3.pdf

(2) The Valuation of Financial Companies: Tools and Techniques to Measure the Value of Banks, Insurance Companies and Other Financial Institutions (2014) Mario Massari, Gianfranco Gianfrate, Laura Zanetti. Wiley publishing, ISBN: 978-1-118-61733-5 - https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Valuation+of+Financial+Companies%3A+Tools+and+Techniques+to+Measure+the+Value+of+Banks%2C+Insurance+Companies+and+Other+Financial+Institutions-p-9781118617335

(3) Corporate Valuation: Measuring the Value of Companies in Turbulent Times (2016) Mario Massari, Gianfranco Gianfrate, Laura Zanetti. Wiley publishing, ISBN: 978-1-119-00333-5 - https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Corporate+Valuation%3A+Measuring+the+Value+of+Companies+in+Turbulent+Times+-p-9781119003335

(4) Sovereign Wealth Funds’ Investments and Corporate Bondholders (2017), Journal of Private
Equity - https://www.jstor.org/stable/26478030

Crowdfunding and Venture Capital: Complements or Substitutes? (2016) with M. D’Ambrosio,
Journal of Private Equity, Vol. 20, No. 1: pp. 7–20 - https://www.jstor.org/stable/44396812

Who is the Sovereign among Sovereign Wealth Funds: A Network Analysis of Co-
Investments (2016) with E. Merlin, Journal of Private Equity, Vol. 19, No. 4: pp. 7–18 - https://www.jstor.org/stable/44396801

Private Equity throughout the Financial Crisis (2015) with S. Loewenthal, Journal of Private
Equity, Vol. 19, No. 1: pp. 14–26 - https://www.jstor.org/stable/43967366

(5) Ghitti, M., Gianfrate, G. & Palma, L. The agency of greenwashing. J Manag Gov 28, 905–941 (2024) - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-023-09683-8

(6) Gianfrate, G., Rubin, M., Ruzzi, D. et al. On the resilience of ESG firms during the COVID-19 crisis: evidence across countries and asset classes. J Int Bus Stud 55, 1069–1084 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-024-00718-2

and see also "Were ESG firms really more resilient during the COVID-19 crisis?", EDHEC Vox, Jan. 2025.

(7) Marco Ghitti, Gianfranco Gianfrate, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Marco Spinelli. What’s in a shade? The market relevance of green bonds’ external reviews (2023) The British Accounting Review,101271, ISSN 0890-8389 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2023.101271

and see also "A look at the importance of certifying “green” credentials for corporate debt", EDHEC Vox, Feb. 2025