Cornerstone Research Elevates Senior Professionals to Vice President and Principal

These accomplished individuals exemplify the firm's commitment to excellence and its continued growth across diverse practices and industries.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Cornerstone Research, a leading provider of economic and financial consulting and expert testimony, has promoted the following professionals to vice president: Sara Champion, Avigail Kifer, Matteo Li Bergolis, Elisa Olivieri, and M. Scott Wilson.

In addition, the firm advanced Phuong Dinh, Ildikó Magyari, Alan F. D. Potter, and Qiqi Zou to the role of principal.

"I am delighted to congratulate our newest vice presidents and principals, whose talent and commitment are fundamental to the firm's continued success," said Rahul Guha, Cornerstone's CEO. "Beyond their professional leadership, their dedication to supporting their colleagues and fostering a collaborative culture is essential to the value we deliver to our clients and experts."

More information on the firm's newly promoted professionals is below.

Promotions to Vice President

Sara Champion coheads Cornerstone's labor and discrimination practice. Dr. Champion leads teams to conduct economic analysis and apply advanced statistical techniques in complex business litigation related to labor, employment, competition, healthcare, and life sciences. She addresses class certification, liability, and damages issues in these contexts, frequently analyzing large, proprietary datasets. Dr. Champion's experience includes assessing equal treatment and equal pay issues in high-profile litigation, government investigations, and preemptive pre-litigation consulting.

Avigail Kifer specializes in merger review, antitrust and competition, and technology matters. With expertise in empirical industrial organization and quantitative marketing, Dr. Kifer develops robust analyses for complex litigation and regulatory investigations. She has extensive experience with class certification, liability, and damages claims arising in a variety of competition matters. A vice chair in the ABA's Section of Antitrust Law, Dr. Kifer has published award-winning research focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and competitive market dynamics.

Matteo Li Bergolis is a leader in Cornerstone's consumer fraud and product liability practice. Dr. Li Bergolis analyzes economic, marketing, and statistical issues in product liability, data privacy, and antitrust matters. Frequently consulting on high-profile, precedent-setting matters, he leads teams to support clients and experts across all phases of litigation, including designing complex surveys and analyzing market data for class certification and damages issues. Dr. Li Bergolis's industry expertise includes automobiles, healthcare, and technology.

Elisa Olivieri coheads Cornerstone's labor and discrimination practice, specializing in labor economics and antitrust. Her expertise encompasses discrimination claims involving race, gender, and age across a variety of industries, as well as competition issues in labor markets, including the competitive effects of mergers on workers. Dr. Olivieri has extensive experience leading economic analysis in antitrust matters more broadly, including class certification, liability, and damages analyses in cases alleging monopolization and exclusionary conduct.

M. Scott Wilson specializes in matters involving insurance markets, securities, and financial institutions. As cohead of Cornerstone's insurance and pension practice, Dr. Wilson analyzes insurance pricing, loss-reserving, and asset-liability management, among other issues. In complex securities matters, he addresses market efficiency, price impact, loss causation, and damages. Dr. Wilson's broad experience also includes, for example, evaluating mutual fund performance, analyzing private equity custom and practice, and addressing valuation and other issues in fraudulent transfer litigation.

Promotions to Principal

Phuong Dinh develops and applies advanced data science tools to support expert testimony in commercial litigation. Leading teams across antitrust and competition matters, Ms. Dinh analyzes massive cloud datasets using large language models (LLMs). Her work includes building data analytics code libraries for matters involving market manipulation and disruptive trading allegations, digital assets, FinTech, and company valuations.

Ildikó Magyari applies industrial organization (IO) and econometric techniques to antitrust and competition issues. She works with clients in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) investigations in industries such as agriculture, chemicals, consumer products, digital technology, gaming, media, and oil and gas. Dr. Magyari also supports experts in antitrust litigation matters involving the technology sector. She has served as a leader in the American Bar Association's Antitrust Law Section and also teaches at Columbia University.

Alan F. D. Potter consults on a range of matters involving consumer fraud and product liability claims. Dr. Potter has expertise in survey methodology and design, consumer behavior, content analysis, and quantitative analyses of large datasets related to consumer behavior and decision-making. His experience covers various industries and product categories, including automobiles, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, and technology.

Qiqi Zou focuses on securities class actions, financial institutions, and structured finance matters. In securities litigation, Dr. Zou addresses class certification, loss causation, and damages, including Rule 10b-5, Section 11, and Section 14 issues. In her work with financial institutions, she evaluates commodities closeouts and market manipulation allegations. Her expertise also includes credit rating methodologies, derivative valuations, and automated valuation models.

About Cornerstone Research
Cornerstone Research provides economic and financial consulting and expert testimony in all phases of complex disputes and regulatory investigations. The firm works with an extensive network of prominent academics and industry practitioners to identify the best-qualified expert for each assignment. With a reputation for high quality and effectiveness, Cornerstone Research has consistently delivered rigorous, state-of-the-art analysis since 1989. The firm has more than 1,000 professionals in nine offices across the United States, UK, and EU. 

SOURCE Cornerstone Research