Belen Villalonga

Biography

Belén Villalonga is the William R. Berkley Professor in Management and Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Between 2001 and 2012 she was a faculty member at the Harvard Business School.

Professor Villalonga’s work focuses on family business, corporate strategy and corporate governance. She has written several articles on how family ownership and control influence firms’ governance and strategy and, ultimately, their performance. She has also studied extensively the area of corporate diversification. She has developed and taught courses and programs for graduate and undergraduate students as well as for executives and business families. Her award-winning research has been published in leading academic journals, has been cited about 20,000 times in scholarly articles, and has been featured in the leading international media outlets.

Professor Villalonga serves or has served as an independent director on the board of several companies that are global leaders in their respective industries: Técnicas Reunidas (engineering); Ferroglobe (mining & metallurgy); Mapfre USA (insurance); Banco Santander International (private banking); Grifols (biopharma); Acciona (renewable energy & infrastructure); and Talgo (high-speed trains).

She holds a Ph.D. in Management and an M.A. in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She also holds a second Ph.D. in Business Economics from the Complutense University of Madrid. She is fluent in Spanish, English, and French, and conversant in Portuguese and Italian.

Research Interests

• Family business
• Strategic Ownership
• Corporate governance
• Corporate strategy
• Corporate finance

Courses Taught

• Competitive Strategy
• Corporate Strategy
• Managing Family Businesses

Academic Background

Ph.D., Management, 2001
University of California, Los Angeles

Ph.D., Economic and Management Sciences, 2000
Universidad Complutense de Madrid

M.A., Economics, 1998
University of California, Los Angeles

B.A., Economic and Management Sciences, 1991
Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros, Madrid

Awards & Appointments

Journal of Corporate Finance	25th Anniversary Award for the most influential paper published in JCF since its founding	2018
SAID Business School, Oxford University	Visiting Scholar and founding team member, The Ownership Project	2018
Financial Management	Second Prize, 2010-2012 Pearson Best Paper Prize	2012
Harvard Business School	Junior Faculty Recipient, Wyss Award for Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students	2010
European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)	Standard Life Investments Finance Prize for the best paper in the Finance Working Paper series	2007
INSEAD	Andre Hoffman Visiting Professor of Family Enterprise	2007
Harvard Business School	Associate Professor, Finance Unit, 2006 - 2012	2006
Family Firms Institute	Best Unpublished Research Paper Award	2006
Journal of Finance	First Prize, 2004 Brattle Prize for outstanding papers	2005
Financial Management	First Prize, 2002-2004 Addison-Wesley Best Paper Prize	2004
Harvard Business School	Assistant Professor, Finance Unit, 2001 - 2006	2001

Selected Publications

Belén Villalonga, Peter Tufano, and Boya Wang (2025)
Corporate ownership and ESG performance
Journal of Corporate Finance 91, 102732

Feldman, Emilie, Raphael Amit, and Belén Villalonga (2019)
Family firms and the stock market performance of acquisitions and divestitures
Strategic Management Journal 40, 757–780

Villalonga, Belén, Raphael Amit, María Andrea Trujillo, and Alexander Guzmán (2015)
Governance of family firms
Annual Reviews of Financial Economics 7, 635–654

Villalonga, Belén, and Raphael Amit (2010)
Family control of firms and industries
Financial Management, 39 (3), 863-904

Villalonga, Belén, and Raphael Amit (2009)
How are U.S. family firms controlled?
Review of Financial Studies, 22 (8), 3047-3091

Villalonga, Belén, and Raphael Amit (2006)
How do family ownership, control, and management affect firm value?
Journal of Financial Economics, 80 (2), 385-417

Villalonga, Belén, and Anita McGahan (2005)
The choice among acquisitions, alliances, and divestitures
Strategic Management Journal, 26 (13), 1183-1208

Villalonga, Belén (2004)
Diversification discount or premium? New evidence from the Business Information Tracking Series
Journal of Finance, 59, 479-506

Villalonga, Belén (2004)
Does diversification cause the 'diversification discount'?
Financial Management, 33 (2), 5-27

Belén Villalonga and Harold Demsetz (2001)
Ownership structure and corporate performance
Journal of Corporate Finance, 7, 209-233