Sara Pantuliano

Chief Executive, ODI Global

Senior Leadership Team

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Sara is Chief Executive at ODI Global, where she was previously Managing Director and Director of Humanitarian Programmes. She has been appointed by the UN Secretary-General as an Independent Eminent Person for the 2025 Peacebuilding Architecture Review, and earlier served as the Chair of his Seventh Advisory Group of the UN Peacebuilding Fund, having also been a member of the Sixth Advisory Group. She is the Chair of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council on Reimagining Aid, as well as a member of its Humanitarian and Resilience Investing initiative’s High-Level Group.

Sara is the Editor-in-Chief of Disasters journal, trustee of the boards of Muslim Aid and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, and Chair of British Fencing. She has previously served on a range of executive and advisory boards, including The New Humanitarian, SOS Sahel, Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre, the UN Association of the UK, UNFPA’s ICPD25 High-Level Commission and multiple WEF Global Agenda and Future Councils.

Sara was a member of the Independent Team of Advisers established in 2016 by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to formulate recommendations on the reform of the UN development system. She previously led a high-profile UN response in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, headed the Peacebuilding Unit in UNDP Sudan, acted as an observer at the IGAD Sudan peace process and lectured at the University of Dar es Salaam.

She has been recognised for her leadership on peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance and international development, and was made a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2024 UK New Year Honours. She is the creator and host of ODI Global’s flagship podcast ‘Think Change’.