Dr Andra Sonea
Profile
»I bring over a decade of international experience at the intersection of consulting and technology. In the past, I held senior roles with global firms including SAP, KPMG, EY, and Deutsche Bank, and served as Lead Solutions Architect within the Innovation Labs of IBM UK and Lloyds Banking Group. At the moment, I hold a postdoctoral fellowship at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. My research focuses on financial services as critical national infrastructure, access to banking, and using computational methods in social science research, in particula network and spatial analysis.«

Curriculum Vitæ
Research and Professional Experience
Since 2026: Senior Postdoctoral Researcher; Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research
2025 – 2026: Postdoctoral Researcher; Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom
2024 – 2025: Postdoctoral Researcher; University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies
2021 – 2022: Research Fellow; University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Saïd Business School
1999 – 2021: Various strategic and leadership positions in industry; Germany, United Kingdom
Deutsche Bank, Lloyds, IBM, amongst others
Education
2024: PhD in Urban Science; University of Warwick, United Kingdom
2003: MBA in Finance; London Business School, United Kingdom
1997: BA in Political Science and French; Universitatea din București, Romania
Research
My research interests include:
- Financial Services as Critical National Infrastructure
- Technology Strategy. Mega-Banks Systems Architecture. Fintech
- Access to Banking
- Open Banking and Open Finance
- Computational methods for Social Science Research
- Network and Spatial Analysis
Contact
Dr Andra Sonea
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research
Pleinlaan 2
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Email: andra.sonea@vub.be
Address while at TU Dortmund University:
TU Dortmund University
Department of Spatial Planning
Room GBIII/308
August-Schmidt-Straße 10
44227 Dortmund
Germany
