As news headlines continue to validate uncertainty about the European debt crisis, HBS students have a direct line to an expert in the field. Senior Lecturer Dante Roscini (MBA 1988), the L.E. Simmons Faculty Fellow, left a 20-year career in European banking in 2008 to teach at HBS — timing, he says, that couldn’t have been better. “The US financial crisis made students particularly interested in my views, and since the European crisis, I’ve been concentrating my research and case writing on this latter topic.”

From the 1980s through the recent financial crisis, Roscini rode the booms, plateaus, and shake-ups in global finance —and now, a new generation of future business leaders are benefiting from his extensive experience. After graduating from HBS, Roscini, formerly a nuclear engineer, entered the world of investment banking in London, the first Italian banking associate hired by Goldman Sachs. In the late 1990s, he joined Merrill Lynch to run the global capital markets and then later moved to Morgan Stanley, where he managed all the firm’s Italian businesses from its Milan headquarters.

“My goal is to impart an awareness of global issues that will impact our students when they graduate,” says Roscini. “If they go into international business, they will need to ask: Do I go in this market or not? How do I navigate political, eco-nomic, or regulatory risk? How do I think about foreign exchange in this context? Should I invest elsewhere? How do I choose where to put my plant? Since I’ve lived through these decisions in my own career and with my clients, I try to share some of the lessons learned.”

Today, approximately 10 percent of the HBS faculty are practitioners who have had distinguished careers in the public or private sector.

Their work is supported by generous gifts from alumni and friends that enable the School’s efforts to bring faculty with unique perspectives and experiences to the classroom. “Professor Roscini excels as a practitioner  — he has found a way to marry his dynamic career in European banking with his love for teaching,” says L.E. Simmons (MBA 1972), president of a Houston-based private equity firm. “I’m thrilled to support his work, especially in this financial climate when his expertise is even more valuable.”

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