Assistant Professor
Lisa Hehenberger
Universities & Institutions
- ESADE Business & Law School
Areas of Interest
- Venture philanthropy
- Social impact investment
- Social entrepreneurship
- Field construction as an entrepreneurial project
- Corporate impact strategies
- Organisational philanthropy
Dr. Lisa Hehenberger is an Assistant Professor in the department of Strategy and General Management at ESADE, and Director of the Entrepreneurship Institute. She is a renowned expert on social entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy and impact investment.
She is a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Social Business (GECES) and of the OECD’s Social Impact Investment Expert group. She served on the French National Advisory Board and the Impact Measurement Working Group of the Social Impact Investment Task Force established by the G8. Until recently, she was the Research and Policy Director of the European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA). EVPA is the pan-European association for venture philanthropy and social impact investment. She set up and ran EVPA’s Knowledge Centre, conducting and publishing research, and collecting and disseminating data and knowledge. She also coordinated EVPA’s policy initiatives, facilitating the transfer of knowledge between policy makers and practitioners.
Dr. Hehenberger’s research focuses on applying organisational theory to study the evolution of venture philanthropy and social impact investment. She has published in prestigious academic journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, and practitioner-oriented publications such as Stanford Social Innovation Review, as well as in numerous publications for the EVPA Knowledge Centre. She is a member of the scientific board of SDA Bocconi School of Management’s Impact Investing Lab and has served as advisor to the EU-funded research projects SEFORIS (social entrepreneurship for innovative and inclusive societies) and ITSSOIN (impact of the third sector as social innovation). Dr. Hehenberger has advised organisations such as WWF and Meridia Capital Partners on the impact of invested funds.
Dr. Hehenberger has a PhD in management from IESE Business School and a master’s degree in business and economics from Stockholm School of Economics and HEC (CEMS). Previously she worked in investment banking at UBS and GB Investment Banking in London, Madrid, and Barcelona.