Massimo Morini
Massimo Morini
Career
I was Head of Interest Rates & Credit Models at Intesa San Paolo bank from 2006 to 2019, directing the development and implementation of the quantitative models for trading, risk management, and regulatory compliance. In the meanwhile, I was an advisor for the World Bank in Washington D.C for 7 years and for the Monetary Authority of Singapore for 4 years.
Around 2014 I found out about Bitcoin and I followed the creation of Ethereum, becoming passioned for blockchain technology and its applications. In 2016 I became Board member for the R3 consortium created by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to apply blockchain technology in finance. In 2018 I was invited by Silvio Micali, MIT cryptography professor and Turing Prize, to join the Algorand Blockchain.
I was Chief Economist at Algorand Foundation from 2019 to 2023, working at the design of new incentives and supply management, the launch of decentralized governance, and the development of the Decentralized Finance market. I also headed the Treasury and the Market Research units.
Since 2023 I’m economic advisor for Cardano, a long-term top 5 public blockchain. I have recently founded EMMA, supporting blockchain ecosystems and financial institutions and providing Advisory and Analytics for Economic and Mathematical Modelling.
Research
I have a PhD in Maths focused on Stochastic Calculus for financial markets. During it I was awarded a Marie Curie fellowship at London City University in 2004. My first degree is in Economics and Quantitative Methods.
During my career I continued my research in mathematical finance, publishing for Wiley two seminal bools, on Model Risk in 2011 and on Collateral Management for Credit Risk in 2013. I published several articles on top mathematical finance journals, and in the same years I was in the top 5 quoted authors for Risk, the most widespread journal for quant practitioners in finance.
Between 2015 and 2017 I wrote the first papers proposing decentralized financial products with collateral automation designed on Ethereum Smart Contracts. My papers have been were quoted by US regulators in their parliament hearings on blockchain applications, and regularly reported on Coindesk, the leading sector magazine.
Teaching
Since 2019 I am Professor of Blockchain and Digital Currencies, a Swiss Finance Institute course, at the University of Lugano.
I am a scientific director for the Master in Quantitative Finance at Milan Polytechnic, where I teach in the Fintech Master.
I gave invited lectures and courses at Oxford University, Imperial College, African Institute of Mathematics and other institutions.
I teach in Bocconi since 2007, and my courses at the department of finance have run since then, transforming with the transformation of financial markets.
