Francesco Grillo graduated with laude in Economics from LUISS University (Rome) before earning an MBA with flying colours from Boston University as a Fulbright Scholar. He also holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
He is also Professor at Bocconi University in Milan where he teaches at the Master of Transformative Sustainability (jointly offered by Bocconi and Politecnico of Milan) and the Master in Sustainability Management at SDA Bocconi. He is Visiting Fellow at The European University Institute in Fiesole, an Affiliate Professor at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa, and teaches at the summer school of the University of International Business Economics in Beijing. He has been a visiting fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute and at St. Antony's College (University of Oxford). He advises Italy’s Minister of Infrastructure on urban policy and has advised Italy’s Minister of Education, Universities and Research.
He started his career at McKinsey, the management consulting firm, where he worked in the financial institutions practice, before joining Vision and Value, the strategy consulting boutique. As Managing Director, he advises major institutions (including the European Commission and the Italian Ministry of Economy) and multinationals. Francesco is also Director of the think tank Vision, which convenes two yearly major conferences on the future of Europe (in Siena) and on global governance of climate change (in Venice). His professional and research interests are around how the Internet is changing industries and political systems. He is a board member of publicly listed Italian companies and a member of investment committees at private equity funds.
He is a columnist for La Repubblica, Il Messaggero, Corriere della Sera, Linkiesta, and The Guardian. He is interviewed by international media like The Economist, and he is a regular guest on La7, SkyTG24 and RaiNews24.
Together with Vision he led projects on the impact of the Internet on Society, social innovation, the future of universities and on smart cities. He is author of many scientific articles. His latest books are “Democracy and Growth in the 21st century: the diverging cases of China and Italy” (Springer Nature), “Lezioni Cinesi” (Solferino RCS) and "Innovation, democracy and Efficiency – Exploring the Innovation Puzzle within European Union’s Regional Development Policies" (Palgrave Macmillan). His forthcoming book is “Internet of Beings. The dreams and nightmares of digitalizing human bodies (2027, Wiley/ Emerald) on the great convergence between AI and healthcare
