EMI Conference 2025

Lourdes Casanova is the Gail and Rob Cañizares Director of the Emerging Markets Institute and a Senior Lecturer at Cornell University’s S.C. Johnson College of Business. A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Casanova holds a Master’s from USC and a Ph.D. from the University of Barcelona.

Previously at INSEAD, Dr. Casanova is recognized as one of the 50 most influential Iberoamerican intellectuals and 30 most influential Iberoamerican women intellectuals by Esglobal. She has co-edited books like “From Copycats to Leaders” and authored “Global Latinas” while actively contributing to global economic forums and publications.

Anne Miroux is Faculty Fellow at the Emerging Markets Institute in the Johnson School of Business at Cornell University. She has over 30 years of experience in international trade and finance. Dr. Miroux began her career in the United Nations Center on Transnational Corporations in New York, where she was involved in the negotiations on the UN Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations. In the mid 1980s she joined the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), where she specialized in issues related to developing-country debt, foreign direct investment and transnational corporations, and technology and innovation policies. For several years, Dr. Miroux led the organization’s work on foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics and directed the World Investment Reports (WIR), the United Nations flagship report on FDI and transnational corporations. She also served as the editor of the UN Transnational Corporations Journal. Dr. Miroux published a number of papers and articles and led research projects and technical assistance activities in developing countries on debt, FDI, and development.

Until late 2015, Dr. Miroux was the Director of the Division on Technology and Logistics in UNCTAD, in charge of the organization’s work on technology and trade logistics. She was also the Head of the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD). Dr. Miroux is a member of the Advisory Board of the Technology and Management Center of the Department of International Development at Oxford University as well as a member of the Board of NetExplo. Dr. Miroux has an MBA from HEC – Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (Jouy-en-Josas, France) and a diploma from IEP (Institut d’Etudes Politiques – Paris). She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University of Paris I – Sorbonne.

Kaleb Kavuma is co-chair of the EMI Conference Committee and a past president of the Emerging Markets Institute Club.

Rafaela Baldeon is co-president of the Bitcoin Club and co-chair of the EMI Conference Committee.

Rustom Desai is a visiting senior lecturer at Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He teaches Strategic Alliances and Family Enterprise Management & Governance. Desai brings to his role 25 years of demonstrated success as a technology executive. He spent most of his professional career with Corning Incorporated, where he held leadership positions of increasing impact across tech-heavy industries including semiconductors, consumer electronics, and telecommunications. Desai has repeatedly delivered dramatic growth through building strong and diverse global teams and has deep experience in general management, product management, mergers and acquisitions, global/emerging markets. As a global citizen, he has lived and worked in the United States, China, Taiwan, and India.

Desai is a trusted director with extensive expertise serving on public, private, joint venture, and family enterprise boards. He also served as an independent director of a publicly traded, woman-run, family-controlled company and is on several advisory boards, including the Emerging Markets Institute at Cornell Johnson and the Praxis Center for Venture Development at Cornell.