Rodrigo Tavares is an Adjunct Full Professor at NOVA School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), where he teaches master’s and executive education courses in sustainable finance, corporate sustainability, and artificial intelligence, in addition to conducting research in these fields.
He is the Founder and CEO of the Granito Group, a financial firm headquartered in the United Kingdom dedicated to advancing the sustainable economy through strategic consulting, financial advisory, and policy & research services.
Between 2011 and 2014, Tavares served as Head of the Office for International Affairs of the Government of the State of São Paulo — the world’s 18th largest economy — where he conceived and led the State’s international strategy. From 2008 to 2010, he authored the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s annual reports on Africa’s development, and worked for five years at the United Nations University, the UN’s official think tank, in Belgium and Ethiopia.
His academic background includes a Ph.D. from the University of Gothenburg, a Research Fellow on a postdoctoral grant at Columbia University, a visiting research fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior research fellowship at Harvard University. He was also a Visiting Professor at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) in Brazil (2013–2018), where he received a teaching award in 2017 for achieving the highest student evaluations. He completed executive programs on Negotiation (Harvard, 2006), Global Leadership (Harvard, 2021), Energy Transition (Princeton, 2022), and Artificial Intelligence (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2023).
He is the author of five books and dozens of academic articles on international relations, sustainability, finance, and economic development, published in journals such as the Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Journal of Environmental Investing, and Sustainable Communities.
His book Paradiplomacy: Cities and States as Global Players (Oxford University Press) is an international reference in the field. He is also the creator and co-organizer of A Palavra e o Poder: Uma Travessia Crítica por 40 Anos de Democracia Brasileira [Word and Power: A Critical Journey Through Forty Years of Brazilian Democracy — original in Portuguese] (Grupo Editorial Record, 2025), which gathers 80 leading Brazilian figures, including all former presidents of the Republic.
He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (2017) and a Young Leader by the Government of Québec (2011).
Tavares is a columnist for Folha de S.Paulo (Brazil) and Expresso (Portugal), and a commentator on TSF radio. His analyses have been featured in media outlets such as the Financial Times, The Economist, Fortune, MIT Technology Review, Quartz, Arab News, and the World Economic Forum.
He is a Certified ESG Analyst® (CESGA) by the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS) and holds a Certificate in ESG Investing from the CFA Institute.