The Team

Anne-Laure Fayard

Chaired Professor

Chaired Professor in Social Innovation at Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE). She is the founder and coordinator of the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) Lab @Nova SBE. She is also a visiting research faculty at NYU. Prior to joining Nova SBE, she was faculty at New York University as well as INSEAD. She also held visiting positions at Imperial College Business School, London School of Economics and Ecole des Mines.

Her recent research focuses on cross-sector collaboration and open innovation for social innovation and the future of work. She is passionate about human-centered design that she researches, teaches and practices. At NYU, she was the faculty founder for the Design Lab @NYU MakerSpace and for the Design of America of NYU studio.

Her work has been published in several leading academic journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly , Organization Science and Harvard Business Review. Her work has also been highlighted in major newspapers such as  New York Times, Financial Times and The Economist. Her book with Anca Metiu, The Power of Writing in Organizations, was published by Routledge in August 2012, and she co-edited The Routledge Companion to Anthropology and Business (2020) with Raza Mir.

She holds an MA and an M.Phil. in Philosophy from Paris – La Sorbonne, an M.Phil. in Cognitive Science from Ecole Polytechnique (Paris) and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from the Ecole des Hautes-Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris).

Paolo Leone

Assistant Professor

Paolo is an Assistant Professor in Social Innovation at Nova SBE. His research focuses on the organizational dynamics that drive social innovation processes. Particularly, he explores how new forms of organizing can generate beneficial outcomes for society by fostering groundbreaking knowledge collaborations in settings as different as scientific innovation and new ventures. His research has appeared in Academy of Management Review. Paolo teaches the master level courses of “Organizing for Good in the Digital Age” and “Open Innovation”. He received a PhD in Management from McGill University, and MPhil in Innovation, Strategy and Organization from the University of Cambridge, and a Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudeza (5-year law degree) from Università Roma Tre.

Rita Nascimento

Project Manager

Rita is the Project Manager for the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and a Ph.D. in Management candidate at Nova SBE. In her research, she focuses on hybrid organizations in different contexts. Rita is also interested in education, sustainability (circular economy), cross-sectoral collaboration, (open) social innovation and action-research philosophy. Prior to joining Nova SBE, she worked with NGOs and startups in business Development, project management and digital marketing. And in 2020, she launched Treethis, a family-run social business.

Beatriz Bento

DESIS Lab Community Manager

Beatriz holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Faculdade de Belas Artes of Universidade de Lisboa (FBAUL) and a Master’s degree in Museology and Museography. She furthered her expertise with a postgraduate degree in Art Markets from ISCTE.
With a dynamic career, Beatriz after working at IADE in the international mobility area and being part of the exhibition room at MAAT, she joined Nova SBE as part of the Faculty Office team.
Previously, she led community-focused artistic education projects during her 5 years at FBAUL. Currently, Beatriz shares her insights also as a teaching assistant for Master’s courses ‘Impact Makers’, ‘Design Thinking for Social Innovation’ and ’Leading Impact Enterprises in International Development’.

Yulia Vachevskikh

PhD Student

Yulia is a Ph.D Candidate in Management at Nova SBE, with Anne-Laure Fayard as main advisor. Her research interests are social innovation, cross-sector collaboration and system change. Before she was an intern at Yunus Centre and MAZE Impact.

Farah Mulji

Associate Researcher

Farah is a Principal at ImpactVine Advisors, a management advisory and investment firm, and a Venture Partner with Oryx Impact, a US$250M fund of funds investing in early fund managers with a focus on gender equality, climate action and job creation. Prior to founding ImpactVine Advisors, Farah was the founder of an education technology venture serving the higher education market across Africa and over half a million students. She brings more than 18 years of working at the intersection of business and society, working with leaders in the technology, professional services, non-profit, education and private sector driven international development sectors, across Africa, Asia and North America. Farah started her career in strategy consulting at Deloitte in Canada, has a degree in Business Administration from the University of Toronto and a MBA from INSEAD.