Founder of Verba International

With almost 20 years of experience in the U.S. and in Europe, Elisabetta specializes in cross-cultural business communication; she coaches global executives on keynote speeches, corporate presentations, and media interviews. She frequently works with foreign entrepreneurs to help them refine their fundraising pitch to Silicon Valley-based venture capitalists. In her corporate career, Elisabetta was a Director in the Technology Practice of the media relations firm Burson-Marsteller, and Manager of Communications with the international consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

Elisabetta currently teaches communication strategy at the Graduate School of Management at the University of San Francisco. Previously, she taught media skills, interviewing skills, and public speaking workshops at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Elisabetta holds a Laurea degree in German Literature from the Universita’ degli Studi di Milano, and is the author of Communicating the American Way , a guide to U.S. business communication (Happy About Press, 2008).

Professor of Business Administration and Innovation, Department of Economics, Insubria State University (Varese, Lombardia); Director, CrESIT Research Centre and Visiting Professor at San Francisco State University.

Over the years, Dr. Onetti has developed in-depth expertise in the areas of corporate strategy and corporate finance. He serves as a consultant for leading banking groups and for Italian and multinational companies and sits on the board of some private companies. His research interests are focused in the life science industry and business models for high-tech companies. Dr. Onetti is the author of an extensive list of conference contributions, books and articles that include: “Strategia d’impresa,” Il Sole 24 ORE Libri, which has reached the 3rd edition; “Balanced Scorecard im Krankenhaus,” which has been published in Germany by Economica Verlag; and “Business Models for Biotech” to be published by Routledge later this year.