skip to content
Home

Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

Dr Livia Ventura

Dr Ventura is the King's Global Sustainability Fellow in Business Transformation and New Corporate Forms, supported by Anglian Water Services.

Livia joined CISL in December 2021 as a Senior Research Associate, working on corporate governance and the development of a comprehensive legal framework for sustainable organisations. She applies a legal lens to business transformation with a view to fostering policy recommendations.

Livia is an attorney at law with an academic background in both comparative and company law. She holds a PhD in Comparative and Uniform Business Law from Sapienza University of Rome (2013) and earned her second doctoral degree (S.J.D. - Doctor of Juridical Science) from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 2018. Her studies focus on the use of business as a force for an equal and inclusive economic growth. Livia has previously served as a member of the working group for the drafting of a parliamentary initiative bill on the introduction of the ‘benefit corporation’ model in Italy. She is an Adjunct Professor of Private Comparative Law at the LUISS Guido Carli Department of Law in Rome, and an Academic Fellow of the Geneva Centre for Philanthropy. In addition to several articles in Italian and international law reviews, Livia is the author of a book on The Use of ‘Internal’ Asset Partitioning in Business Law: A Comparative Overview (2019).

Biography

Career

  • King's Fellow in Business Transformation and New Corporate Forms.
  • Adjunct Professor of Private Comparative Law, LUISS Guido Carli Department of Law, Rome (2019-present).
  • Lecturer and coordinator, Master in “Business and Company Law: European and International Perspectives”, LUISS Guido Carli School of Law, Rome (2013-present).
  • Adjunct Professor of Comparative Legal Systems, LUMSA University, Department of Law, Economics, Politics and Modern Languages, Rome (2021).
  • Adjunct Professor of Comparative Business Law and Advanced Comparative Business Law, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Department of Language and Cultural Studies, Modena (2018-2019).
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Private Comparative Law, LUISS Guido Carli Department of Law, Rome (2015-2019).
  • Visiting Research Fellow, Fordham University Law School, New York (2012).
  • Visiting Fellow, The Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg (2011).
  • Teaching assistant in Private Comparative Law, LUISS Guido Carli Department of Law, Rome (2009-2014).

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.), Temple University Beasley School of Law, Philadelphia (2018).
  • PhD in Economic and Business Law: Comparative and Uniform Business Law, Sapienza University of Rome (2013).
  • Attorney at law admitted to the Italian Bar (2013).
  • Law Degree (Company and Tax Law), LUISS Guido Carli Department of Law, Rome (2008).
  • National Scientific Qualification (ASN) to function as Associate Professor of Private Comparative Law (12/E2-IUS/02) conferred by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR) (October 2022). 

Other affiliations

  • Academic Fellow of the Geneva Centre for Philanthropy, Université De Genève.
  • Founding partner and member of the Scientific Committee of Assobenefit, the representative association of Italian benefit corporations.
  • Member of the Italian Association of Comparative Law (Associazione Italiana di Diritto Comparato – AIDC).
  • Member of the American Society of Comparative Law (ASCL).

Research

Livia’s research focuses on comparative company law, with particular emphasis on topics relating to social enterprise and sustainable corporate law. As Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellow in Business Transformation and New Corporate Forms, Livia’s research agenda aims to identify new paradigms concerning firms’ organisational form and governance, suitable for better addressing the essential characteristics of companies willing to align their business purpose and strategies with long-term value creation for society.

Publications

Key publications: 

 

Peer reviewed journals and books

  • L. Ventura, The “philanthropic” duties of the board of directors in the New Paradigm of Responsible Capitalism, forthcoming in Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Philanthropy, Springer, 2025.
  • L. Ventura, Corporate Governance, Gender Diversity and the Role of Law, in Legal and Economic Considerations of Gender Equality, eds. by P. Canero, G. Canero, L. Menchetti, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2025, 147-182.
  • L. Ventura, Sustainability and Purpose-Driven Companies: New Legal Trends From A Comparative Law Perspective, The Cambridge Journal of Climate Research, vol. 1, issue 2, 2024, 177-193, https://doi.org/10.60866/CAM.130.
  • L. Ventura, Corporate Governance and Diversity: Gender Quotas in The Boardroom and The Role of Law From A Comparative Law Perspective, The Journal of Comparative Law, no. 2, 2024.
  • L. Ventura, New trends in legal frameworks for purpose-driven companies—The European way(s), Research Dialogue – Corporate purpose and the Law, European Management Review, vol. 20, n. 4, 2023, 725-732, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/emre.12627.
  • L. Ventura, Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence and the New Boundaries of the Firms in the European Union, European Business Law Review, vol. 2, n. 34, 239-268, 2023.
  • B. De Donno, L. Ventura, Sustainable Procurement: The Active Role of the State in Building a Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Growth, in State and Enterprise - Legal Issues in the Global Market, eds. by M.R. Mauro and F. Pernazza, Springer, 2023, 259-281.
  • L. Ventura, The social enterprise movement and the birth of hybrid organizational forms as policy response to the growing demand for firm altruism, in The International Handbook of Social Enterprise Law. Benefit Corporations and Other Purpose Driven Companies, eds. by H. Peter, C. Vargas Vasserot, J. Alcalde Silva, Springer, 2023, 9-25, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-14216-1_2.
  • L. Ventura, Social Enterprises and Benefit Corporations in Italy, in The International Handbook of Social Enterprise Law. Benefit corporations and other purpose driven companies, eds. by H. Peter, C. Vargas Vasserot, J. Alcalde Silva, Springer, 2023, 651–674 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-14216-1_31 (Fondation Lombard Odier Prize for Academic Excellence in Philanthropy in the category ‘Status of purpose-driven companies in a particular national context’ https://www.unige.ch/Social-Entrepreneurship-Philanthropy/prizes-best-academic-papers).
  • L. Ventura, Philanthropy and the For-profit Corporation: The Benefit Corporation as The New Form of Firm Altruism, European Business Organization Law Review, n. 3, 2022, 603-632, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40804-021-00227-x.

 

Other publications and media

Livia Ventura
King's Global Sustainability Fellow

Contact Details

Email address: 
livia.ventura@cisl.cam.ac.uk

Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
The Entopia Building
1 Regent Street
Cambridge CB2 1GG, UK
 

Contact us

Site Privacy & Cookie Policies

Connect with us

Quick links

Online Payment

© 2025 University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. All rights reserved.

 

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge