Mario Vella

Mario Vella is Director of Foreign Direct Investment and International Business Services at Grant Thornton in Malta, where he is also responsible for coordinating Libyan assignments.

A former CEO of the Malta Development Corporation, Dr Vella is also Visiting Professor of Foreign Direct Investment Studies at Napier University, Edinburgh, where he was instrumental in the setting up of the world’s first, and to-date only, internationally recognised postgraduate qualification for investment promotion and development agency executives. This course is endorsed by the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) and was developed in cooperation with the Zurich-based Swiss outward direct investment promotion agency SOFI, where Dr Vella was a Senior Associate Consultant.

Dr Vella studied and has degrees from the universities of Malta, London (at the London School of Economics) and Humboldt in Berlin. Apart from Napier University in Edinburgh (see above) he also teaches at the University of Malta and is a frequent visiting lecturer internationally, his most recent engagements being at the Graduate School of Economics and International Relations of the Catholic University in Milan and the University of Urbino, Italy.

Dr Vella has extensive FDI experience with an international clientele including both investors seeking appropriate locations and investment promotion agencies seeking to attract investors. During his career he has been instrumental in attracting significant foreign direct investors to Malta and in promoting important expansions of existing operations.