DIRECTOR OF THE MASTER'S COURSE - MIFALAB
Director of the Master 2024/25:
GEMMA D'AURIA, Senior Partner and Global Leader of Apparel, Fashion & Luxury McKinsey & Company
As global leader of McKinsey's Apparel, Fashion, and Luxury practice, Gemma works with leading companies in the sector to help them achieve transformations aimed at accelerating sustainable growth and creating lasting change in terms of performance and organizational health.
With over 20 years of consulting experience in the US, Middle East, and Europe, Gemma supports clients in a variety of areas, including integrated growth strategies, digital transformation, advanced analytics, and large-scale capability development. She is also committed to supporting leadership development to improve customer experience and drive innovation in the organizations she works with.
Gemma regularly publishes studies and insights on retail, fashion, and luxury topics. She is also responsible for and co-author of the annual “State of Fashion” report, produced in collaboration with Business of Fashion, and the annual Sporting Goods study.
Gemma regularly publishes studies and insights on retail, fashion, and luxury topics. She is also responsible for and co-author of the annual “State of Fashion” report, produced in collaboration with Business of Fashion, and the annual study on Sporting Goods.
As one of the global leaders of the CEO Excellence practice, Gemma works with CEOs to define their growth paths, as well as those of their organizations and family businesses, to ensure they are effective in terms of operations, leadership skills, and competencies.
Before joining McKinsey, Gemma worked in the Investment Banking division of JP Morgan in London. Her curiosity led her to gain experience in various countries around the world, from Europe to the United States and the Middle East.
Director for 2026/27:
IDA PALOMBELLA, Intangibles, Data and Technology Leader, Deloitte Italy
Ida Palombella is an Italian qualified lawyer, Senior Partner at Deloitte Legal Italy, where she leads the IP, IT and Data Protection Practice. She is also the Fashion&Luxury Global Co-Leader and EMEA Leader at Deloitte, as a recognition of the wide and long lasting expertise in this sector. Ida Palombella spent 20+ years of her career in the fashion industry (in-house and as external counsel) and is recognized internationally as a well known lawyer in the sector.
She started her career in-house as legal counsel to the well-known fashion maison Valentino and moved to private practice and spent 15 years heading the IP, IT & Data Protection department of one of the top tier Italian law firms, whereby she provided IP and contractual support to some of the most relevant Italian and International fashion and luxury brands.
Ida has particular experience and knowledge of the legal issues affecting the fashion, design and luxury sectors and has been involved in the management and commercialisation of Italian brands in Europe and Asia. She is actively involved with the Italian Fashion Chamber (Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana) and is a regular speaker at several fashion events. Ida is also an adjunct professor at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore teaching the first- established academic course of Fashion Law. Ida is recognized as a top fashion and IP lawyer and has been indicated as “Leading individual” from 2018 up until 2025 in the Legal500 “Fashion and Luxury” ranking.