Maristella Botticini (Travagliato – Brescia, 1966) has been an independent director of CIR since June 2020. 

She was an independent director of CIR (before the merger with COFIDE) from 2011 to February 2020.

She graduated in Political Economy at the Bocconi University in Milan in 1990 and obtained a PhD in Economy at Northwestern University (USA) in 1997.

She is Professor of Economics (since 2009) at the Bocconi University.

She is a fellow of the Innocenzo Gasparini Institute of Economic Research (since 2011) at the Bocconi University and research fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London.

She is Chairman of the European Economic Association (since 2023).

She is active in research in the areas of economic history, microeconomics and the economy of institutions. She is the author of books and articles in international publications.

Previously, she was professor of Economics at Turin University and associate professor in the Economics department of Boston University. During her academic career in the United States, she received a number of awards including the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship award and the CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation. She was recently awarded an Advanced Research Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).