Sara Pantuliano

Commissioner

Chief Executive at ODI and the Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Seventh Advisory Group of the UN Peacebuilding Fund

Sara Pantuliano is Chief Executive at ODI, where she was previously Managing Director. She is the Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Seventh Advisory Group of the UN Peacebuilding Fund and a member of the High-Level Group on Humanitarian and Resilience Investing initiative of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Sara is the Editor-in-Chief of the Disasters journal and a Trustee of the Board of Muslim Aid and of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. She previously led a high-profile UN response in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, acted as an observer at the IGAD Sudan peace process and lectured at the University of Dar es Salaam. Sara has 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 and of UNFPA’s ICPD25 High-Level Commission. She holds a doctorate in Politics and International Studies from the University of Leeds and has written extensively on conflict, peacebuilding and humanitarian affairs. She was made a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance and international development. She is the host of ODI’s fortnightly flagship podcast ‘Think Change’.