Group of Experts

Mariana Mazzucato (Co-chair)

Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose. She is winner of international prizes including the Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 2021, Italy's highest civilian honour, the 2020 John von Neumann Award, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, and 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. Most recently, Pope Francis appointed her to the Pontifical Academy for Life for bringing ‘more humanity’ to the world. She is the author of The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths(2013), The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy (2018), Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism (2021), and most recently The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies (2023). She advises policymakers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. Her roles include Chair of the World Health Organization's Council on the Economics of Health for All, Co-Chair of the Global Commission.

Dr. Barbara Buchner

Dr. Barbara Buchner is Global Managing Director of Climate Policy Initiative. Named one of the 20 most influential women in climate change, Barbara advises leaders on climate, renewable energy, and sustainable land use investments around the world. Barbara is the lead author on CPI’s Global Landscape of Climate Finance which has set the benchmark for climate finance tracking. Barbara also directs the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (the Lab), a climate finance incubator that leverages public-private collaboration to develop innovative climate finance instruments that resolve financing barriers to renewable energy, urban infrastructure, sustainable agriculture and land use projects in emerging markets. Instruments from the Lab have already mobilized over USD 4 billion for sustainable development.

Luisa Palacios

Dr. Luisa Palacios is a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and an Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs where she teaches a graduate-level class on the financing of the energy transition in emerging markets. She is also the Faculty Advisor for a Capstone Project on the Fiscal Feasibility of Countries’ Support Schemes towards their Climate Policies and Targets. Dr. Palacios comes to CGEP after a multidisciplinary career in the intersection of energy, finance, and policy. In 2019, she was appointed as the first Chairwoman of Houston-based Citgo Petroleum Corporation, where she led the company during significant geopolitical, financial, operational, and legal challenges. Palacios also led efforts to strengthen corporate governance, ethics, and social responsibility, including the publication of the company’s first-ever ESG report. Before Citgo, Palacios was a Senior Managing Director and member of the management committee of Medley Global Advisors, a NY-based macro policy research firm where she led Latin America’s economic and energy practice and later the firm’s emerging markets research efforts. She previously worked at Barclays Capital as a Director in the emerging markets research department in New York and as an Economist in the risk department at Société Générale in Paris where she was responsible for sovereign risk analysis of Middle East and Latin American countries. She also worked as a Senior Economist at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and as a Consultant in the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. She graduated from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela; received a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs; and a Ph.D. in international affairs from The John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Dr. Palacios co-heads the ESG/Energy Transition Finance working group at the Center on Global Energy Policy, co-leads the initiative on the Financing of the Energy Transition at CGEP, is part of the Editorial Board of the Americas Quarterly, is an affiliatedfaculty at the Institute for Latin American Studies at Columbia University and a permanent member of the Council of Foreign Relations.

Ma Jun

Dr. Ma Jun is the Founder and President of Institute of Finance and Sustainability, Chairman of Sprinkles (HK) Charity Foundation, Chairman of Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking, Chairman of Hong Kong Green Finance Association, Co-Chair of the Steering Committee of the Green Investment Principles for the Belt & Road, Chairman of the Capacity-building Alliance of Sustainable Investment (CASI), and Co-Chair of IPSF Taxonomy Working Group. In the past years, Dr. Ma served as Co-Chair of G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG), and chairs of two workstreams of the Central Banks and Supervisors’ Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). Between 2018 and 2020, Dr Ma was the Director of Center for Green Finance Development at Tsinghua University. During 2014-17, Dr. Ma served as the Chief Economist at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)’s Research Bureau. Between 2018-21, he was a member of the PBOC’s Monetary Policy Committee. Before joining the PBOC, he worked for 13 years at Deutsche Bank, where he was Managing Director/Chief Economist/Investment Strategist for Greater China. During 1992-2000, he worked as a senior economist and economist at the World Bank and the IMF. From 1988-1990, he was a research fellow at the Development Research Center of China's State Council. Dr. Ma is a globally renowned policy advocate and effective practitioner for green and sustainable finance and has received numerous awards for his research and policy advocacy. He led the drafting of China’s green finance guidelines and its first green bond taxonomy during 2015-16; he initiated and facilitated a range of global consensuses on scaling up green finance under the G20 framework during 2016-22; he initiated and led the drafting of the Green Investment Principles for the Belt & Road in 2018; he initiated the idea and then co-led the effort to develop the Common Ground Taxonomy under the International Platform for Sustainable Finance (IPSF) in 2019-2023. Dr. Ma received his Ph.D. in Economics from Georgetown University in 1994, and Master's Degree in Management Science from Fudan University in 1988.

Vera Songwe (Co-chair)

Vera Songwe is Chair and Founder of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility, a visiting senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Co-Chair of the Independent High Level Expert Panel on Climate Finance nominated by the government of the UK and Egypt for COP27 and also for the Egypt and the UAE under COP28 alongside Lord Nick Stern. Under these COP presidencies they wrote the Songwe-Stern report on Climate finance as well the report on Accelerating implementation of Climate Finance. She also co-authored the report Financing nature: a Transformative agenda launched at COP28. Dr. Songwe is a Co-Chair of the Food System Economics Commission, an independent interdisciplinary academic commission that equips political and economic decision makers with tools and evidence to shift food and land use systems. She is the former United Nations Under-Secretary General and the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Songwe has led numerous efforts to bring greater prosperity to Africa. She has worked with African heads of government, Ministers of Finance and Central Bank governors, international organizations and the private sector on macroeconomic stability, monetary policy, financial innovation and inclusion growth, economic integration and trade, and private sector development. She is a leader recognized and respected globally and has contributed policy adviceto many continental leaders and institutional leaders globally. Previously, Songwe was the Regional Director of the International Finance Corporation, covering West and Central Africa. She oversaw a multi-billion dollar portfolio of investments in energy, transportation, manufacturing and technology. Prior to this, she held a number of roles at the World Bank, including serving as Country Director, Adviser to the Managing Director for Africa, Europe and Central and South Asia. She spent 10 years of her career working and living in Asia. She joined the World Bank as a Young Professional. Prior to joining the Bank, she was a Visiting Researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minnesota and at the University of Southern California. Songwe was named African Icon of the year in 2022 by the African Bankers Association for her work on SDRs, Inflation, debt management and domestic resource mobilization. She was named one of the ‘100 Most Influential Africans’ by Jeune Afrique in 2021 as well the top 50 most influential African Women by Forbes Magazine in 2019 and by the Financial Times as among 25 Africans to watch. She holds a PhD in Mathematical Economics from the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics, a Master of Arts in Law and Economics and a Diplôme d’études approfondies in Economic Science and Politics from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. She also was presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in December of 2022 and holds a B.A. in Economics and Political science, both from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Amir Lebdioui

Amir Lebdioui is an Algerian Economist and Associate Professor of the Political Economy of Development at the University of Oxford. He is the founding director of the Oxford Research and Policy engagement Programme on Green Economic Transformation in Latin America. His research has focused on the economic diversification of resource-dependent nations, green industrial policy, and biodiversity-based development models. He also serves on the advisory council of the Natural Resource Governance Institute. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. His forthcoming book "Survival of the Greenest: Economic Transformation in a Climate-conscious World", will be come out in May 2024.

Carlos Lopes

Carlos Lopes is professor in the Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town, visiting professor at Sciences Po, Paris and associate fellow in the Africa Programme and Chatham House. He has occupied several leadership positions across the UN system, including policy director for Secretary-General Kofi Annan and executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa. He has authored or edited more than 20 books and feature articles in Project Syndicate, CNN, Le Monde, Financial Times, China Daily, The Guardian, New African and Jeune Afrique. He is a member of the African Union reform team led by President of Rwanda Paul Kagame and doubles as the organisation High Representative for Partnerships with Europe as well as a member of the Global Commission for Economy and Climate, African Academy of Sciences and Lisbon Academy of Sciences and the Boards of the African Leadership Institute and Geneva Graduate Institute.

Lucas Chancel

Lucas Chancel’s work focuses on global inequality and environmental policy. In 2023-24, he teaches at Harvard Kennedy School as a visiting Associate Professor. Lucas is an Associate Professor of Economics with tenure at Sciences Po, affiliated with the Center for Research on Social Inequalities and the Department of Economics. He is also Co-Director and Senior Economist at the World Inequality Lab at the Paris Scool of Economics (PSE). He is a also a Senior advisor at the European Tax Observatory, an Associate researcher at the Insitute for Sustainable Development and International Relations and a Visiting senior scholar at the London School of Economics. Lucas obtained his PhD in Economics from the School of Higher Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) – Paris School of Economics. He holds a Masters in Economics and Public Policy from Sciences Po, Ecole Polytechnique and ENSAE as well as a Masters of Science in Sustainable Energy from Imperial College London. He also studied at the London School of Economics and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Coverage of his work can be found in Science, Nature, the New York Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, El Pais and other international publications. His work also features in the IPCC 6th assessment report.

Juliano Assunção

Juliano Assunção is the Executive Director of CPI/PUC-Rio and Professor in the Department of Economics at PUC-Rio. Since 2011, he has been working at CPI/PUC-Rio, contributing to improving climate policies in Brazil through evidence-based analyses and direct engagement with policymakers and civil society. Juliano provides strategic guidance to CPI/PUC-Rio's research and projects. Juliano also coordinates the Amazon 2030 project, which aims to leverage a sustainable development plan for the Brazilian Amazon by 2030. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from PUC-Rio, a Master's in Economics from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), and a Bachelor's in Economics, also from UFMG. With a solid academic career, he has numerous articles published in scientific journals, supervision of doctoral and master's students, and has delivered several lectures at national and international conferences.

Daniela Gabor

Professor of Economics and Macro-Finance at the University of the West of England Bristol. In 2024, she is the Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., and Annette L. Nazareth Member at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. Her research develops three related themes under the umbrella of critical macro-finance: central banking in crisis, the governance of global banks and the IMF, and the long reach of shadow banking. Gabor publishes regularly in the Financial Times, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Boston Review, and Jacobin.

Renu Kohli

Renu Kohli is currently Senior Fellow, at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), a New Delhi based public policy think tank. Her primary research interests center upon macroeconomic policy issues and climate change. She is a former staff member of the Reserve Bank of India and the International Monetary Fund. As a practitioner, she has exposure to central banking and macroeconomic surveillance, while her research experience includes past association with the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations (ICRIER, as Professor) where she led research on macroeconomic and financial sector related policy issues. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and authored a book on India’s capital account liberalization. A longtime consultant to foreign investors interested in India, she is also a short-term expert with IMF capacity training institutions, a frequent contributor to opeds, andan independent director on the board of a private sector bank, a nonbank finance company, and an agriculture commodities’ firm.

Ulrich Volz

Ulrich Volz is Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Finance at SOAS, University of London. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Leipzig. Ulrich is academic director of the University Network for Strengthening Macrofinancial Resilience to Climate and Environmental Change, co-chair of the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment, co-chair of the T20 Brazil Task Force on Reforming the International Financial Architecture, and a member of the CEPR Sustainable Finance Research and Policy Network. He serves on the Sustainable Finance Advisory Committee of the German Federal Government, the Economic Advisory Network of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the advisory panel of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), the International Advisory Committee for the Climate/SDGs Debt Swap Mechanism of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA), and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion’s Research Advisory Council for Inclusive Green Finance. Ulrich was Banque de France Chair at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, and taught at Peking University, Kobe University, Hertie School of Governance, Freie Universität Berlin, Central University of Finance and Economics, and the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO). He spent stints working at the European Central Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and held visiting positions at the University of Oxford, University of Birmingham, Aoyama Gakuin University, ECB, Bank Indonesia, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Asian Development Bank Institute, where he previously served on the Advisory Council. Ulrich was part of the UN Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System and a member of the NGFS-INSPIRE Study Group on Biodiversity and Financial Stability. He has acted as an advisor to several governments, central banks, international organisations and development agencies on matters of macroeconomic policy, sustainable finance and development.