Bio
Simona Zambelli is Adjunct Professor at SAIS Europe
Professor of Finance, University of Florence
Simona Zambelli is Full Professor of Finance at University of Florence and Director of International Relations of the Department of Economics and Management. She holds a PhD in Economics of Financial Intermediation from University of Siena (Italy); a degree in Economics with a legal focus from the University of Bologna (Italy); and a second postgraduate degree focused in Finance with a Mathematical Finance specialization (PCF), from the University of London, Birkbeck College (London). After specializing in financial regulation at the University of London (Birkbeck College, UK, as visiting research fellow) and in venture capital and financing innovation at Harvard University - Harvard Business School (Boston, MA, USA, as a post-doctoral fellow), she was visiting professor at the University of Leicester (UK), and IPAG Business School (Paris), as well as visiting researcher at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute –RPI (NY, USA), and York University - Schulich School of Business (Toronto, CA).
Before joining the University of Florence, Zambelli was Associate Professor at the University of Bologna (Italy), coordinating a wide number of International Bilateral Agreements and holding various institutional positions, such as the Director of the Business & Organizational Unit (RUOS) of the Department of Management at the Forlì Campus. She has published several articles in international journals, including,
European Financial Management, International Journal of Management Reviews, and
Journal of Banking and Finance, as well as books with publishers such as Oxford University Press, as well as written several international publications on: Private Equity Financing, Leveraged and M&A Acquisitions, and Corporate Governance in Private Equity.
Her main research interests refer to: Financing Innovation (Venture Capital, Crowdfunding, Private Equity, and Impact Investing), Neurofinance, Gender Diversity, and Woman Empowerment. For a recent curriculum vitae including a full list of publications,
see personal website.
Courses
- Corporate Finance
Introduces quantitative tools and framework of financial decision-making. Examines present-value techniques, pricing of financial instruments, trade-off between risk and return, portfolio theory, capital budgeting, financial ratio analysis, behavior of financial markets, capital structure decisions, corporate cost of capital issues, option theory and risk management. Approach is rigorous and analytical, and goal is to provide students with conceptual understanding of the ideas of financial theory as well as the quantitative methods necessary to pursue careers involving financial decision-making. Students without a background in finance/business should consider taking the online Introduction to Accounting course prior to enrollment or concurrently. In addition, students should take International Economics I concurrently with this course.
Prerequisites: Students may not register for this class if they have already received credit for SA.380.760[C]
- Fundamentals of Corporate Finance
This two-credit course introduces students to the basic toolkit for understanding risk in financial markets, with a focus on corporate-finance-related issues and capital markets. It begins with an introduction to net present value and basic accounting. From there is introduces standard financing instruments -- equity, bonds, retained earnings, and bank credit. The course then explains how these instruments are priced, traded and hedged. It concludes with analysis of debt financing and risk management. Students will come away with an understanding of the time value of money, the structure and management of corporate financing, and the relationship between corporate finance, banks, and capital markets.