Researchers
Alicia Dipierri
Ana Alicia Dipierri is a researcher, at the CERMi-ULB under the joint supervision of Marek Hudon and Tom Dedeurwaerdere (UCL). She starts in October with a 2+2 Aspirant fellowship of the FNRS. Her topic of interest is the behavioral changes that occur in the food system towards a sustainable development. More precisely, the objective of her PhD is to understand the changes in the behavior, the innovative solutions and the triggering motivations of several actors (i.e. small-scale and medium producers and enterprises, industrial actors, not-for-profit organizations, etc.), towards a sustainable development. She holds a master’s degree in international development and economics (HTW Berlin, Germany), two post-diploma/licentiate degrees in marketing (UOC Barcelona, Spain) and international trade (UB Barcelona, Spain), and a diploma/licentiate in tourism development (UNCo Neuquen, Argentina).
Email: Alicia.Dipierri@ulb.be
Tel.: +32 (0)2.650.35.88
Nzanzu Y'Ise Kivalya
Nzanzu Y'Ise Kivalya is doing a PhD at the University of Mons (Warocqué School of Business and Economics) under the supervision of Dr Cécile GODFROID. In his research, he discusses gender issues in Microfinance. More specifically, his PhD topic is entitled: "Microfinance and Women". He also holds a Specialised Master's degree in the "European Microfinance Programme" from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Solvay School of Economics and Management).
Email: nzanzukivalya@gmail.com
François-Xavier Ledru is currently undertaking a Ph.D programme in finance at both the Centre for European Research in Microfinance (CERMi - ULB) and the Centre for Research in Finance and Management (CeReFiM - UNamur). He is also a teaching assistant in econometrics at the University of Namur (UNamur). He works under the co-supervision of Professor Marek Hudon (ULB) and Professor Oscar Bernal (UNamur). His research topic is Impact Investing, but he also goes further into related issues pertaining to microfinance, Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), social enterprises, ESG criteria, etc. François-Xavier holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from the Haute Ecole Louvain en Hainaut (HELHa) as well as a Master’s Degree in Finance from the University of Namur (UNamur).
Email: francois-xavier.ledru@unamur.be
Pablo Manuelli is a researcher working under the supervision of Professor Marek Hudon (ULB). He works on a one-year study mission relative to the development of an inter-enterprise mutual credit scheme in the Brussels-Capital Region. The project is being carried out as a in collaboration with Financité ASBL. He holds a master’s degree in economics with a focus in “economics and society” from the University of Liège (ULiège) and a master’s degree in political sciences from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He has gained some working experience in the field of poverty and energy economics through, respectively, internships at the Federal Planning Bureau and at the think tank Itinera.
Email: Pablo.Manuelli@ulb.be
Patrick Murhula
Patrick Murhula is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Mons (Warocqué School of Business and Economics) under the supervision of Professor Marc Labie. His research topic is “collective ownership and cooperative governance sustainability”. Patrick is a teaching assistant in the Economics and Management department at the “Université Catholique de Bukavu” (UCB) in DR Congo. He also works as a research assistant at the “Laboratoire d’Economie Appliquée au Développement (LEAD-UCB)”. He holds a master’s degree in financial management at UCB and a Specialised Master in Microfinance at the “Université Libre de Bruxelles” (European Microfinance Program).
Email: murhula.cubaka@ucbukavu.ac.cd
Deborah Umba Ngoyi
Deborah Umba Ngoyi is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Mons (Warocqué School of Business and Economics) under the joint supervision of Professor Mélanie Croquet and Dr. Cécile Godfroid, both from the University of Mons. Her thesis topic is “Behavioral economics of consumers of digital financial services''. She is also interested in microfinance schism, performances assessment, women empowerment, and impact studies. She conducted a study on over-indebtedness in the microfinance market in Kinshasa in 2018 and another in 2020 on synergies between social and financial performance with a focus on social performance management process, using the Atlas database, in collaboration with ADA. She holds a master's degree in business administration from the Université Protestante au Congo and a specialized master in microfinance from the European Microfinance Program at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). With regard to her professional experience, she has worked as a project manager for the establishment of a microfinance institution in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as an economist for a consulting firm, as a microfinance advisor for an NGO and as an Advocacy and Research assistant for the European Microfinance Network.
Email: deborahumba97@gmail.com
Ariane Reyns is a Ph.D. student at the CERMi-ULB. Her thesis is jointly supervised by Marek Hudon and Koen Schoors (UGent). She started in October 2020 as a teaching assistant for advanced corporate finance courses. Since February 2021, she’s pursuing her research with a 2x2 FRESH grant from the FNRS. Her topics of interest are economic resilience and complementary currencies. More specifically, her Ph.D. dissertation aims at understanding the resilience potential of complementary currencies, and on a smaller level, the driving factors behind the use of such currencies. Ariane graduated from the ULB with the Research Master in Economics degree and holds a bachelor’s degree in applied economics from the VUB.
Email: Ariane.Reyns@ulb.be