I am Professor and Chair of Accounting, Governance and Social innovation at the University of Edinburgh Business School and Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford. At Oxford, I also am Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Italian Studies at Oxford, which I co-founded while being there as Reader in Accounting at the Saïd Business School (in association with an Official Studentship, i.e. fellowship, at Christ Church).
My academic journey begun at the University of Palermo, where I graduated in Economics and Management before pursuing my doctoral studies at the University of Catania. After my doctorate, I was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship by the European Commission to pursue studies on management control system in large multinational organisations at the School of Accounting and Finance at the University of Manchester. I then moved to the University Carlos III of Madrid, as assistant professor, and to Oxford as Lecturer and then Reader in Accounting. Before joining Edinburgh, I was Professor of Accounting and Management Control at IE Business School, Madrid.
I have also had visiting and research positions at the Universities of Catania, HEC-Paris, Kyoto, Madrid Carlos III, Manchester, Oxford, Palermo, Siena, Luigi Bocconi of Milan and, as a Fulbright New Century Scholar, at the University of Stanford, where I pursued research on the contours of business education.
My research interests are quite diverse but they all relate to the fact that accounting is nowadays an ubiquitous practice that informs and relates to many aspects of the life of individuals, and the functioning of organisations, economies and societies. I tend to do a substantial amount of historical work as, for me, studying accounting in different times (and spaces) is a way to defamiliarise ourselves from what accounting is nowadays supposed to be (i.e. a practice related exclusively to economic and financial calculations) and to explore alternatives which enable more equal, I would say more balanced, organisations and society (see my Research page).
I currently also research and consult in the area of Major Programme Management, especially in relation to issues of reporting design and visualisation for managing risk and uncertainty, of governance and leadership.