Management Board

Professor Francisco Veloso (Chair)

Dean of Imperial College Business School 

Professor Veloso is a leading authority in innovation and entrepreneurship; his work has included studies into the development of Silicon Valley, and the innovation and scientific impact of developing nations. He was previously Dean of Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics and retains an adjunct professorship at Carnegie Mellon University.

Professor Franklin Allen 

Vice Dean of Faculty and Research 

Professor Allen is Professor of Finance & Economics and Director of the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis at Imperial College Business School and has held these positions since 2014. In 2019 he became the Associate Dean for Faculty & Research. He was on the faculty of the Wharton School from 1980 to 2016.

Leila Guerra  

Vice Dean (Education)

Leila joined the School in 2018 and directs the postgraduate programme portfolio, including marketing, recruitment and admissions, programmes management, global student initiatives, Careers and the Edtech Lab. She is on the GMAC Board of Directors and, before joining Imperial, worked at Singapore Management University, IE Business School and London Business School.

Omar Merlo

Associate Dean (External Relations)

Dr Merlo is Associate Dean (External Relations) and Academic Director of the MSc Strategic Marketing programmes at Imperial College Business School. He has also held Visiting Professor positions at numerous universities worldwide, such as the University of Oxford, UCL, the London School of Economics, the University of Lausanne, Aalto University, the University of Lugano, the Helsinki School of Economics, and Yonsei Graduate School of Management. Dr Merlo is currently also a Fellow in Marketing at the University of Cambridge

Professor Paola Criscuolo

Head of Department, Management & Entrepreneurship

Paola has been with Imperial College Business School since 2004. Her research examines how large organisations manage the innovation process, including the selection of R&D projects, the organisation of the R&D function, and the management of R&D staff and patent portfolios. Paola is on the Academy of Management Journal editorial board, and she has been the recipient of two prestigious industry awards for best research publication in innovation management.   

Professor Tommaso Valletti 

Head of Department, Economics & Public Policy

Professor Valletti is a leading scholar in industrial economics, regulation, and competition policy. He is a Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research and a Non-Executive Director to the board of the Financial Conduct Authority. He was the Chief Competition Economist of the European Commission (Directorate General for Competition) between 2016 and 2019.

Wolfram Wieseman

Head of Department, Analytics, Marketing & Operations

Wolfram Wiesemann is Professor of Analytics & Operations in Imperial College Business School's Department of Analytics, Marketing & Operations. His research interests evolve around decision-making under uncertainty, with applications to supply chain management, healthcare and energy. Wolfram is an elected member of the boards of the Mathematical Optimization Society and the Stochastic Programming Society, and he serves as an area editor for Operations Research Letters as well as an associate editor for Mathematical Programming, Operations Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and SIAM Journal on Optimization.

Robert Kosowski

Head of Department, Finance

Robert Kosowski is a Professor in the Finance Department of Imperial College Business School, Imperial College London. He is also a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and an associate member of the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance at Oxford University. Robert is on the editorial board of the Journal of Alternative Investments and a member of AIMA‘s research committee.

Dr Marisa Miraldo

Chair of the Diversity Committee

Dr Miraldo is an Associate Professor in Health Economics, with expertise on the economics and policy of healthcare innovation, the impact of policies on organisational performance and the behavioural determinants of decision-making. She is Chair of the School’s Diversity Committee and an expert at the World Economic Forum.

David Brown

Director of Executive Education

David joined the School in 2018, having previously been Executive Director of Client Solutions at London Business School. His appointment to the new role of Director of Executive Education is part of a wider initiative to accelerate, expand and further strengthen Executive Education at Imperial College Business School.

Helen Oakley

Faculty Finance Officer

Helen is a qualified Chartered Accountant and joins from London Business School, where she was Director of Financial Planning & Analysis. Prior to that she spent some time in the city as a management accountant at Deutsche Bank and Bank of America.  She is a graduate of Imperial College.

Richard Johnson

Faculty Operating Officer

Richard joined Imperial College Business School in January 2022 and offers strategic leadership and operational oversight to all professional services and support functions of the School. He is a highly experienced leader in the higher education sector, with a track record of developing and delivering on the global strategy of top-tier business schools and universities. He has previously worked at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Washington University.

Laura Nicholson

Strategy & Planning Manager

Laura is responsible for the strategic planning process and implementation of strategy through the School Advisory Board and Management Board. This involves supporting a range of strategic projects, staffing initiatives, and internal communications. She joined the Business School in 2019 as Administration Manager, before moving into this new role in May 2020.

Katie Dorreen

Executive Assistant to the Dean’s Office (secretary to the Board)

Katie’s role as EA to the Dean’s Office means she supports both the Dean and the Faculty Operating Officer, facilitating meetings, travel and events; she also provides strategic reporting information to the Management and Provost’s Boards. Hailing from New Zealand, she has worked in Administration across Australia and London, most recently at the Science Museum.