He graduated with honours (magna cum laude) in Economics at the University of Bologna and studied law and economics in Dublin (University College Dublin) and London where he completed a PhD in Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Previously he was an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Bologna, where he held the course of International Commercial Law, and a teaching assistant at the London School of Economics. His areas of expertise include corporate governance and finance as well as banking and financial regulation.