Valeria is currently a Boya Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Peking University. Valeria research interests lie at the intersection of international relations and international political economy, with a particular focus on development financing and the rise of China in the global context. She received her Ph.D. from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies and the International Institute of Social Studies. She holds an MSc in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics and an MA in International Relations from the University of Roma Tre in Italy. During her PhD, she held visiting positions at the Tsinghua University in China and the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. In the past, she also served in different capacities at several international organisations and research institutes which include, among others, the OECD, UNDP-Ethiopia, UNIDO-China, UNICEF Bolivia and Operation Asha India. Valeria has published her work in peer reviewed journals and presented her papers at conferences and workshops held in Italy, the Netherlands, the U.S., China and Ethiopia.

Fulvio Bersanetti is Program Officer at Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Impact Innovation Dept. Graduated in Economics at University of Turin, he worked as senior economist at REF Ricerche (Milan) and as senior program manager at FCA-Stellantis, Data science Dept. (Turin). His main interest lies the intersection between finance, tech and innovation.

Nicola Bilotta is a researcher the Istituto Affari Internazionali where he works on international political economy, digital economy and geofinance. He worked as a Senior Research Analyst at the Banker Research Team (Financial Times), with which he still collaborates as consultant analyst. In addition, he was Institute Fellow at the Seven Pillar Institute of Finance & Ethics and associate fellow at the Istituto di Alti Studi di Geopolitica e Scienze Ausiliarie (IsAG). He co-authored the books “The (near) future of Central Bank Digital Currencies. Risks and opportunities for the global economy and society” and “The Rise of Tech Giants. A Game Changer in Global Finance and Politics”. Nicola holds a MSC in Economic History from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).