Leonardo Martinez-Diaz

Leonardo Martinez-Diaz is the Global Director at the Sustainable Finance Center of the World Resources Institute. In this capacity, he leads our engagement with governments, development finance organizations, and private financial institutions to rapidly accelerate the shift to sustainable finance. He also guides and amplifies the Finance Center’s research, analysis and influence strategies, and oversees the technical support that the finance team provides across WRI.

Martinez-Diaz joins WRI after six years at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy and Environment, he was responsible for overseeing multilateral climate and environmental funds, directing Treasury's domestic and international work on climate finance, and leading on climate change elements of international negotiations, including at the G7, G20, UNFCCC COP, and the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. He stands out for his intimate knowledge of relevant institutions—he has worked for the IMF, World Bank and USAID, and served on the board of the Green Climate Fund—as well as his fresh ideas and force of intellect. He brings a wealth of international experience, including time in Indonesia and Mexico, and continues WRI’s tradition of close and trusting working relationships with all stakeholders, especially developing countries.

Martinez-Diaz is the author of "Globalizing in Hard Times: the Politics of Banking-Sector Opening in the Emerging World." He is co-editor with Ngaire Woods of "Networks of Influence? Developing Countries in a Networked Global Order," "Brazil as an Economic Superpower? Understanding Brazil’s Changing Role in the Global Economy with Global Economy," and "Studies of IMF Governance: A Compendium with Ruben Lamdany."

He specialized in International Political Economy, receiving a M.Phil. degree in 2001 and D.Phil. in 2007 from Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He graduated with honors from Northwestern University in 1999 with degrees in Economics and Political Science and was a 1998 Truman Scholar.