Dr. Davide Sola is Full Professor of Strategy and former Director of ESCP Business School London campus. His teaching is in the strategy and Entrepreneurship area - in particular he teaches business strategy, Transformation and Entrepreneurship with a focus on Scale Ups to both graduate and post-graduate courses.
Born in Italy Dr. Sola is a graduate of ESCP Business School and University of Turin (1998). He holds a Master’s in European Management, the Diplom Kaufmann, the Diplôme des Grandes Ecoles and the Laurea in Economia from Universita’ di Torino. He earned his doctorate in Enterprise Economics from the University of Torino with a thesis on " - Organisational transformation" - .
Following graduation he became involved in several technology Start-ups, first in Oxford through the Oxford Centre for Innovation, then in London under the umbrella of a number of venture capital and private equity firms. Subsequently he moved to join the Hartley Investment Trust, a private equity firm based in London specialised in corporate restructuring and investment in fast growing organisations - there he worked as Head of New Ventures.
In 2003 Professor Sola returned to Italy to join McKinsey & - Co. where he held the position of Engagement Manager in charge of several projects ranging from post-merger integration to turnaround of state-owned companies. Also in 2003, Dr. Sola was part of the team headed by Dr. Quaglia responsible for setting up the fifth ESCP Business School campus, in Torino, Italy. Professor Sola then held the position of Vice-President of the Board of the school’s Italian campus till 2010. Early in 2007, after a sabbatical year away from McKinsey & - Co. and spent at the London Campus, he joined ESCP Business School as a permanent member of faculty.
Dr. Sola’s research interests are in corporate transformation, strategic renewal, entrepreneurship with a focus on the exponential phase of growth, the so called “Scale Up”. He is author of articles, policy papers, book chapters, case studies and papers presented at international research conferences (Academy of Management, SMS, EIASM, etc.).
Prof. Sola is the London lead for the Jean-Baptiste Say Institute for Entrepreneurship as well as the Co-Director (with Prof. Olivier Saulpic) of the HMI – Health Management Innovation research center.