Mr Michele Geraci

Professor Michele Geraci is former Undersecretary of State at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, responsible for International Trade and Investment, in the Conte I cabinet. Prior to that, he lived for ten years in China where he worked as macro-economist and prof of finance in various universities. Prior to moving to China in 2008, Mr. Geraci lived in London for 20 years working as Top Telecom Investment Banker in the City of London and as Electronic Engineer. In 2018, he was one of the nominees for Italy’s Prime Minister, before taking the role as under-secretary. He is also a frequent guest on major international media and conference and has been awarded Italian Knighthood honor by Italian President Mattarella. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan. He speaks 5 languages, including Chinese.

During his role of Undersecretary of State, Mr. Geraci was in charge of international trade and investment at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development in the Conte I Administration since June 2018. Due to his China’s expertise, he was the main architect in the first G7 Belt and Road MOU signed between Italy and China in March 2018 during President Xi’s visit to Italy. In his first year as Undersecretary of State, he set up a “Task Force China”, a cross-ministerial forum to exchange views and develop a commercial strategy to improve trade with China and developed a new system-based strategy to market Italian products around the world using a core-and-satellite approach. In response to the rampant trade liberalization that tends to penalize the weakest and the least flexible, Professor Geraci set up a Task Force on the Analysis of Free Trade Agreements, to quantify the economic impact of each such FTA, a study never done before in Italy. He has playing a more active role than used to be in all international government events, such as G20, to ensure that the interest of Italy is best represented. The full summery of this activities as Undersecretary of State is available in www.michelegeraci.com

From 2008 to 2018, Mr. Geraci lived in China and worked as a professor of finance and economist, Professor of Practice of Finance at Nottingham University Business School China, Head of China at the Global Policy Institute and Adjunct Professor of Finance at New York University, Shanghai and at Zhejiang University. Recently, Mr. Geraci has also been awarded an Honorary Professorship by School of Economics Peking University. His research work was aimed at governments, corporations, and investors, offering non-academic, practical-oriented policy recommendations and investment advice. Topics of interest included monetary policy, income disparity, migration, urbanisation and European crisis, international trade, M&A. As a China economist, Mr. Geraci has been voted for five years in a row one of the top 50 Italian experts on Chinese matters by MilanoFinanza. He also teaches courses on China’s economy in Europe at LUISS (Rome), Copenhagen Business School and NYU-Stern-HKUST's Master in Global Finance. He is the producer and host of a documentary on China’s economy and has a popular blog aimed at enhancing the knowledge of China amongst European and Italian policymakers, enterprises, and the general public.

Prior to China, Mr. Geraci, worked as an investment banker based in London specializing in the Telecom Media Technology sector (TMT). Over more than a decade between London and Wall Street, he worked in Europe, Latin America, Eastern Europe in investment banks such as Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, DLJ, first in the corporate finance team carrying out IPO and M&A, later as sell-side telecom analyst, co-head of European Telecom Research and Head of Latin America Telecom Research, and finally moved to the buy side responsible for Telecom Investment at Schroders Investment Management, before leaving London for Shanghai just before the Global Financial Crisis erupted, moved by the desire to switch from micro to macro economy analysis.

Before starting his career in finance, Mr. Geraci worked as an electronic engineer in the Satellite Planning division of British Telecom, London. He is proud to have taken part in the design of Eutelsat Hot Bird satellites that are used today to broadcast TV to Europe.

Mr. Geraci holds an MBA from the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, under the guidance and friendship of Professor Modigliani and Rudy Dornbusch and an undergraduate degree in electronic engineering from the University of Palermo, Italy, with one year spent at UCL as exchange student. He speaks Italian, English, Chinese as well as Spanish and some French.

Undergraduate

• China and the Global Economy

Previously held courses

• University of Turin, Italy – “China Economic and Business Outlook” Master Program, Spring 2014
• Nottingham University Business School China – “Fixed Income Investment”, Master Degree in Finance, Spring 2014
• Nottingham University Business School China – “Corporate Finance”, Master Degree in Finance, Autumn 2013
• Zhejiang University, School of Management, Hangzhou – “Stock Market Analysis”, MBA course, Autumn 2013, taught in English and Chinese
• Zhejiang University, School of Management, Hangzhou – “Financial Statement Analysis and forecasting”, MBA, Autumn 2013, taught in English and Chinese
• LUISS, School of Management, Rome – “Doing Business in China”, MBA, Autumn 2013
• Nottingham University Business School China – “Fixed Income Investment”, Master Degree in Finance, Spring 2013
• Nottingham University Business School China – “Corporate Finance”, Master Degree in Finance, Autumn 2012
• Zhejiang University, School of Management, Hangzhou – “Stock Market Analysis”, MBA course, Autumn 2012, taught in English and Chinese
• Zhejiang University, School of Management, Hangzhou – “Financial Statement Analysis and forecasting”, MBA, Autumn 2012, taught in English and Chinese
• Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang – “Corporate Finance”, Undergraduate. Autumn 2012
• South Western University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu – “Financial Statement Analysis”, School of Management (Spring 2012), taught in Chinese
• Zhejiang University, School of Management, Hangzhou – “Stock Market Analysis”, MBA course, Autumn 2011, taught in English and Chinese
• Zhejiang University, School of Management, Hangzhou – “Financial Statement Analysis and forecasting”, MBA course. Autumn 2011
• Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang – “Corporate Finance”, undergraduate course. Autumn 2011
• Chongqing University, Chongqing, “IPO Process”, EMBA, Short course taught in Chinese. Spring 2011
• Sichuan University, Chengdu – “Investment”, undergraduate course. Spring 2011
• Zhejiang University, School of Management, Hangzhou – “Stock Market Analysis”, MBA course. Autumn 2010
• South Western University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu – “A Practical Approach to stock market investing” taught only in Chinese to undergraduate students. Summer 2010
• South Western University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu – “How to successfully invest in the stock market” taught only in Chinese to post-graduate students. Summer 2010
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management - Teaching Assistant for course “Competition in Telecommunications”. Lectured on “Mergers and Acquisitions”. 1996.