Sylvie Matelly joined SKEMA Business School in August 2026 as an economist and lecturer in geoeconomics at the Centre for Global Risks.
She holds a Master’s degree in International Economics, with a specialization in financial and commodity markets, and earned her PhD in Economics in 2000 from Université Pierre Mendès France in Grenoble. Her doctoral dissertation examined The Economic Determinants of Military Spending. She also pursued academic studies in Barcelona and Montpellier.
In 2001, she joined the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS) as a researcher specializing in defence economics. She became Director of Research in 2008 and Deputy Director of IRIS in 2016. From 2023 to August 2026, she served as Director of the Jacques Delors Institute (Paris).
In 2003, she founded the Master’s program in Economics and International Relations at IRIS Sup’, now known as the Master’s in Geoeconomics and Risk Management.
Earlier in her career, from 2001 to 2002, she worked with the Groupe Transition et Développement in Grenoble and the Institute for the Economy in Transition in Moscow on a European TACIS project to establish a development agency in Kaliningrad. From 2009 to 2016, she was an Associate Professor at EMLV in La Défense, where she headed the Department of Finance, Economics, Law and International Relations from 2014 to 2016.
Her research lies at the intersection of economics and geopolitics. Her areas of expertise include industrial and defence policy, economic coercion—including export controls, investment screening, sanctions, and anti-corruption policies—as well as the financing of defence companies in the context of ESG and sustainable finance. She also works on the emerging concept of corporate geopolitical responsibility.
She is the author of numerous publications and several books, including L’Europe peut-elle faire face à la mondialisation ? (2015, La Documentation française), Argent sale : à qui profite le crime ? (2018), Géopolitique de l’économie (2021), and L’économie, tout simplement (2023, Eyrolles).
A recognised expert on geo-economic issues and Europe’s role in globalisation, Sylvie Matelly will contribute to the development and work of the SKEMA Publika think tank.