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Introducing the winners of the second Oxford-Intesa Sanpaolo Prize for Economics and Management

Published

Jacob Sinn (first), Simone Darley (second) and Edward Gray (third) are the winners of the second annual Oxford-Intesa Sanpaolo Prize for Economics and Management.

The award was sponsored by Intesa Sanpaolo, one of Europe’s leading banking groups and a significant supporter of Oxford University and Saïd Business School. The three second-year undergraduates, studying BA (Hons) in Economics and Management, were awarded at a special celebration hosted at Oxford Saïd on January 30.

Entrants were asked to write an opinion editorial arguing for or against the notion that global companies should prioritise local cultures and norms when considering their global corporate cultures. Three prizes of £1,000, £500 and £250, were available, as well as an internship for one winner at the London office of Intesa Sanpaolo this summer, which was awarded to Simone Darley.

I am happy to donate this generous prize to the effective work of Helen Keller International, an NGO battling child mortality and blindness in some of the world's most vulnerable communities.

Jacob Sinn

Winner of the Oxford-Intesa Sanpaolo Prize for Economics and Management

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This year’s winner, Jacob Sinn said: ‘Just like at Intesa Sanpaolo, at Saïd Business School ‘impact from within’ needs to be more than a bold claim, but a lived reality. That’s why I am happy to donate this generous prize to the effective work of Helen Keller International, an NGO battling child mortality and blindness in some of the world's most vulnerable communities.’

Runner-up Simone Darley added: ‘Participating in this competition has been an excellent opportunity to explore diverse perspectives on global corporate cultures. It highlighted the complexities of operating across multiple countries and offered a valuable opportunity to experiment with a new writing style. I am delighted to be joining Intesa Sanpaolo as an intern this summer. Their commitment to social and environmental initiatives strongly aligns with my values, and I am confident that this experience will be both rewarding and informative.’

Finishing in third place, Edward Gray said: ‘I am very pleased to have been awarded third prize in the Oxford-Intesa Sanpaolo competition. This experience provided a great opportunity to step outside our usual tutorial work and explore a different style of writing, all while focusing on a topic of vast significance for our interconnected world. It was very rewarding to contribute to such an essential conversation.’

It has been a pleasure reading and evaluating such a high-quality set of submissions on a theme that is relevant across the Economics and Management curriculum here at Oxford.

Pegram Harrison

Director of the Economics and Management programme

The awards were presented at a dinner hosted by our Dean, Professor Soumitra Dutta, and Mauro Micillo, Chief of IMI Corporate and Investment Banking Division at Intesa Sanpaolo, for all second-year students on the Economics and Management programme, tutors and faculty.

The judges were Pegram Harrison, Director of the Economics and Management programme and a Senior Fellow in Entrepreneurship, Rupert Younger, Director of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation, which devised and administered the prize, and Hilary Hoyt, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation. 

Pegram commented: ‘It has been a pleasure reading and evaluating such a high-quality set of submissions on a theme that is relevant across the Economics and Management curriculum here at Oxford. On behalf of the judges, I extend our thanks to all who entered, Intesa Sanpaolo and the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation for making this possible, and of course to the three award winners.’

The Economics and Management undergraduate degree programme is run jointly by Saïd Business School and the University's Economics Department.

We were delighted to see the excellence of the programme recognised recently in the 2025 Times Higher Education World Subject Rankings where we came first in the UK and second globally.

Find out more about the Economics and Management degree