Lourdes Casanova, a Senior Lecturer and Academic Director of the Emerging Markets Institute at the Johnson School of Business at Cornell University, formerly at INSEAD, specializes in international business with a focus on emerging markets multinationals. Appointed in 2014 as one of the 50 most influential Iberoamerican intellectuals by Esglobal. A Fulbright Scholar with a Masters degree from the University of Southern California and a PhD from the University of Barcelona. Visiting professor at Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, Judge Business School at University of Cambridge and at the Latin American Centre at the University of Oxford, University of Zurich, and Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona and consultant of the Inter-American Development Bank. Taught, directed executive programs at INSEAD for senior managers from multinationals including Telefónica, BBVA and Cemex and the Brazilian Confederation of Industries.

Member of Latin America Global Agenda Council and the Competitiveness in Latin America taskforce of the World Economic Forum, Advisory Committee European Union/Brazil, World Investment Network at UNCTAD, the B20 Task Force on ICT and Innovation in Los Cabos, responsible at INSEAD of Goldman Sachs 10,000 women initiative and co-leading InnovaLatino on Innovation in Latin America. Board member of the Boyce Tompson Institute, the start-up Documenta, founding Board Member of the Societé des Amis du Chateau de Fontainebleau and member of the Advisory Council of the Tompkins Public Library.