2026 Best 40-Under-40 Business Professors: Clara Martínez-Toledano, Imperial Business School 

Clara Martínez-Toledano
Imperial Business School 

“Clara has had a profound impact on students and junior researchers. During my PhD, she generously spent time discussing empirical designs, refining research ideas, and improving writing. She frequently attends student seminars and offers thoughtful, constructive feedback that significantly strengthens our work. Most importantly, Clara is an inspiring role model. She actively supports female students and junior scholars, including organizing the UK Women in Finance Conference, which helps build networks and opportunities for women in the profession. Her mentorship, generosity with time, and commitment to fostering the next generation of scholars make a lasting difference for many young researchers like me.” – Xuelai Li

Clara Martínez-Toledano, 35, is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Imperial Business School.She teaches on Imperial’s Masters in Finance degrees and her research examines how political and financial institutions influence global wealth inequality.  

In addition to her role at Imperial, she is a Wealth Distribution and Political Cleavages Coordinator at the World Inequality Lab. Her research has been recognised with a British Academy/Leverhulme Research Grant and the 2025 IIPF Peggy and Richard Musgrave Prize.  

Her research on wealth taxation and coordination has informed policy changes in Spain. She has published in leading journals including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and her work has been covered by media outlets including Forbes. She is a co-editor of the book Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities, published by Harvard University Press in 2021. Her research has received over one thousand citations.   

BACKGROUND 

At current institution since what year? 2021 

Education:  

• 2015 – 2020 PhD in Economics – Paris School of Economics 
• 2014 – 2015 M.A. in Public Policy and Development – Paris School of Economics 
• 2012 – 2014 M.A. in Economic Analysis – Universidad Carlos III 
• 2008 – 2012 B.A. in Economics – Universidad Carlos III 

List of MBA/graduate business courses you currently teach:  Risk Management and Valuation; Accounting and Corporate Finance

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR 

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when … I realised that this career would allow me to combine the three things I enjoy most: rigorous research, teaching, and engagement with real-world policy questions. I have always been interested in how financial and economic systems shape people’s lives, and business schools are a very natural place to study these questions because they sit at the intersection of markets, firms, households, and policy. 

What attracted me most was the possibility of doing research that is academically rigorous but also relevant beyond academia, while teaching students who will go on to make decisions in business, finance, government, and public institutions. I enjoy that combination: producing evidence on important questions such as wealth, taxation, inequality, and financial markets, and then bringing those insights into the classroom in a way that connects theory to real-world decisions. 

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? I am currently researching how the growth of private capital markets affects inequality. More broadly, I have always been interested in how economic and financial systems shape people’s lives — who owns wealth, who has access to investment opportunities, how households respond to taxes and financial incentives, and how public policy affects the distribution of resources in society. 

In my current work, I study the rise of private capital markets in the U.S. and, in particular, the growing role of high-net-worth individuals in financing early-stage companies. These markets are increasingly important, but access to them is highly unequal: only very wealthy individuals can typically invest in these opportunities. 

The most significant discovery from this research is that this unequal access matters quantitatively for inequality. We find that the share of financing raised by U.S. early-stage companies from high-net-worth individuals tripled between 2004 and 2022, and that their excess returns relative to public stock markets accounted for a meaningful share of the rise in top wealth inequality. In our simulations, these excess returns explain around 26% of the growth in the top 0.5% wealth share between 2010 and 2022. 

What I find especially interesting is that this process can become self-reinforcing: as more wealthy individuals enter private markets, they can raise the value of incumbents’ investments, encourage further investment, and amplify inequality through persistent differences in investor performance. For me, this is exactly why household and public finance are so fascinating: they allow us to connect rigorous empirical work with major policy questions about taxation, access to financial markets, wealth accumulation, and inequality. 

If I weren’t a business school professor… I would have liked to be a professional soccer player — although I am not sure my talent would have taken me very far! I have always loved football: the discipline, the teamwork, the strategy, and the emotional intensity of the game. In some ways, there are similarities with academia: you need persistence, you need to work well with others, and you need to keep improving even after setbacks. But realistically, academia was probably the safer career choice. 

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? What makes me stand out as a professor is that I take teaching very seriously. I put a lot of effort into structuring my courses clearly, so that students understand not only each topic individually, but also how the different parts of the course fit together. 

I also try to make finance intuitive. Corporate finance and valuation can easily become very technical, so I aim to connect textbook material and theories to real-world examples, current events, and practical business decisions. My goal is for students to understand not just how to apply a formula, but why it matters and what it tells us about the real world. 

I think I am also an effective public speaker, and I enjoy the energy of the classroom. I try to make lectures engaging, clear, and rigorous, while giving students the confidence to ask questions and develop their own financial intuition. 

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor:  That the job involves much more prioritization than I expected. You have a lot of freedom, but also many competing demands: research, teaching, students, seminars, service, policy engagement, and administration. The most useful skill is learning how to protect time for the work that matters most, while still being generous with students and colleagues. 

Professor I most admire and why:  The professor I most admire is Gabriel Zucman, Professor of Economics at Paris School of Economics and UC Berkeley. He is best known for his pioneering work on tax havens and offshore wealth, which opened up a new way of studying hidden wealth, tax avoidance, and inequality. His research showed how much wealth is held offshore and how this affects both the measurement of inequality and the ability of governments to tax capital effectively. 

I particularly admire the way he combines frontier academic research with direct engagement in policy debates. His work is technically rigorous, but it also speaks directly to some of the most important issues facing society: tax evasion, wealth concentration, and the design of fairer tax systems. 

I also admire his approach to research: ambitious, data-driven, and willing to build new datasets and methods to answer questions that were previously very difficult to study. 

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students?  What I enjoy most about teaching business students is the energy and practical perspective they bring to the classroom. Many of them have experience in industry, government, consulting, banking, or family businesses, so they do not approach finance as a purely abstract subject. They constantly ask how a model applies in practice, what assumptions are realistic, and how financial decisions affect firms, households, and society. 

That makes teaching them especially rewarding. Their questions push me to explain concepts more clearly, but also to think more deeply about the real-world relevance of what I teach. In finance, models can look very clean on paper, but students often remind me that actual decisions are more complex and nuanced. Teaching business students has made me a better researcher because it forces me to connect abstract ideas to real-world problems. 

What is most challenging? The most challenging part is helping students move from learning formulas to developing real financial intuition. In corporate finance and valuation, students often feel comfortable once they know which equation to use, but the harder step is understanding why that equation is appropriate, what assumptions sit behind it, and how the answer should be interpreted in a real business context. 

Valuation is especially challenging because there is rarely one mechanically “correct” answer. Small changes in assumptions about growth, margins, discount rates, terminal value, or capital structure can lead to very different valuations. I try to help students become comfortable with that uncertainty, while still being rigorous, transparent, and disciplined in their analysis. 

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as…  Fair, rigorous, and transparent. I think students would say that I have high standards, but that I try to make expectations clear. In finance, especially in quantitative courses, I care not only about the final number but also about the reasoning behind it: whether the student has understood the assumptions, applied the method correctly, and interpreted the result sensibly. 

I hope they would also say that I am constructive. My aim is not just to mark what is wrong, but to help students understand how to improve — particularly in corporate finance and valuation, where the quality of the argument and the interpretation often matter as much as the calculation itself. 

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 

What are your hobbies? Outside of work, I enjoy playing and watching soccer, hiking, cooking, and going to concerts. I like activities that help me disconnect and spend time with family and friends. Soccer has always been a big part of my life — I enjoy the teamwork, discipline, and energy of the game. Hiking gives me space to think and recharge, cooking is something I enjoy because it brings people together, and concerts are a great way to enjoy music and feel the energy of a live performance. 

How will you spend your summer? This summer will be a very special one, as I am expecting my second baby around mid-July. So I expect to spend most of it closer to home, walking around parks, enjoying time with my family, and welcoming the arrival of the little one. 

In a more typical summer, I would usually spend some time in Spain with my family, especially by the seaside in Rota, in Cádiz, and in Illana, the village of my parents. Those places are very meaningful to me, but this year the plan will probably be quieter and more focused on family life at home. 

Favorite place(s) to vacation: My favorite place to vacation is Illana, in Guadalajara, the rural Spanish village where my parents were born. It is a place where I feel deeply connected to my family roots and childhood memories. I love its slower rhythm of life, the sense of community, and the feeling of being able to disconnect completely. It is also a place that reminds me of where I come from and helps me recharge. 

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much?  One of my favorite films is Life Is Beautiful. I find it incredibly moving because it combines humor, love, tragedy, and resilience in a very powerful way. What I admire most is the way the film shows a father trying to protect his child’s sense of hope and imagination under the most difficult circumstances. 

It is a film about love, dignity, and the human capacity to find light even in darkness. It stays with you long after you watch it. 

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? I really enjoy pop-rock, and one of my favorite Spanish artists is Fito y Fitipaldis. I like the combination of rock energy, melody, and lyrics that feel honest and close to everyday life. His music reminds me of Spain, road trips, friends, and moments of freedom. It is the kind of music that immediately puts me in a good mood. 

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS 

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have … even more engagement with policy and society. Business schools are in a unique position because they train many of the people who will go on to make important decisions in firms, financial institutions, governments, and international organizations. 

I would like business schools to play a bigger role in helping address some of the major challenges of our time, including inequality, climate change, tax avoidance, financial instability, and the responsible use of technology. This does not mean moving away from rigorous research or technical training. Quite the opposite: it means using rigorous tools to address questions that matter for society. 

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at … thinking beyond short-term outcomes. Profitability and efficiency are important, but organizations also need to consider their broader impact on workers, consumers, communities, the environment, and inequality. 

I think this requires more transparency, better governance, and a stronger sense of responsibility. Many of the biggest challenges we face cannot be solved by governments alone; companies and organizations also have a role to play in building fairer and more sustainable economies. 

I’m grateful for … I am grateful for my family, my health, and the privilege of having a job that I find meaningful. I feel very lucky to be able to spend my time researching questions I care about, teaching students, and engaging with policy debates. 

I am also grateful for the people who have supported me along the way — family, friends, mentors, colleagues, and students. Academia can be demanding, but it is also a privilege to work in an environment where we are constantly learning, exchanging ideas, and trying to understand the world better.  

DON’T MISS: THE ENTIRE 2026 ROSTER OF THE WORLD’S BEST 40-UNDER-40 GRADUATE BUSINESS PROFESSORS 

© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.