Rodrigo Tavares, CESGA
Founder and CEO
Rodrigo Tavares has dedicated his professional life to finding innovative solutions in the fields of finance, sustainable development, and foreign affairs to address human challenges.
From 2011–2014, he served as Head of the São Paulo State Government’s Office of Foreign Affairs (later rebranded as the Secretariat for International Relations). During his mandate, São Paulo state (the world’s 18th largest economy) was often regarded as one of the most prominent subnational players in international relations. In 2008–2010, he was invited by the UN Secretariat to write Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s annual reports on Africa’s development, which were presented to the General Assembly. The reports involved analysis and political negotiations in several African and European countries. He was one of the youngest UN report writers in the organization’s history. He has also been a consultant to other UN agencies (FAO, UNU) and to the Swedish Armed Forces.
Earlier, he worked for five years at the UN University (in Belgium and Ethiopia), the UN think-tank. He has also lived in New Delhi, where he worked for the Delegation of the European Union to India (Department of Political Affairs) (2004). In 2001 and 2002, he served in the Swedish NGO CIVIS on the planning and development of conflict resolution projects in South America.
Rodrigo’s policy career has been complemented by academic work. He is currently an Adjunct Full Professor (Professor Catedrático Convidado) at NOVA School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), in Portugal, where he teaches sustainable finance, corporate sustainability, and AI courses. Nova SBE has been ranked 4th best business school worldwide in finance and 6th in management by the Financial Times (2025).
His academic path includes the universities of Harvard (Senior Research Fellow), Columbia (Research Fellow on a postdoctoral grant awarded by the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education), Gothenburg (Ph.D.), and California, Berkeley (Visiting Research Fellow). He was also an Adjunct Professor at Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in Brazil (2013–2018), where he was awarded a teaching prize in 2017 for ranking the highest in students’ evaluations.
He also 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).
Rodrigo is the author of 5 books on international relations and economic development (published by Oxford University Press, Routledge, and Lynne Rienner), and multiple book chapters and peer-reviewed articles. The latest articles are focused on ESG issues and were published in the Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Sustainable Communities, and Journal of Environmental Investing.
Tavares is a columnist for Folha de S.Paulo (Brazil) and Expresso (Portugal), and a commentator on TSF radio (Portugal). His analyses and opinions have been featured in media outlets such as the Financial Times, The Economist, Fortune, Forbes, LSE Business Review, MIT Technology Review, Quartz, Arab News, and the World Economic Forum.
He was nominated Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (2017), StartUp Portugal Ambassador (2018), and Young Leader by the Government of Québec (2011).
Rodrigo Tavares is a Certified ESG Analyst® (CESGA) from the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS) and holds a Certificate in ESG Investing from the CFA Institute.
