Pavan Sukhdev is Special Advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Green Economy Initiative, which includes the Green Economy Report, the Green Jobs report and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study (TEEB), of which he is also Study Leader.

Pavan brings extensive experience from finance, economics and science to these projects.  He has already shown himself to be a financial innovator.  As a senior banker, he founded and went on to join the board of  Deutsche Bank's Global Markets Centre in Mumbai, a 300+ person cutting-edge front-office which does leading-edge work for Global Markets in London, New York and elsewhere.  Pavan has also held positions with Deutsche Bank as Head of Global Markets Finance for Asia-Pacific, and later Chief Operating Officer of the Bank's Global Emerging Markets Division, a leading and multiple award-winning markets division represented in over thirty countries across Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle-East and Africa.

Pavan was instrumental in the evolution of India’s currency, interest rate and derivatives markets from 1993 till 1998.  He was a member of several Reserve Bank of India (RBI) committees for the development of India’s financial markets, including the Sodhani Committee on Foreign Exchange Markets.  In 1997 he co-founded FIMMDA, India’s association for fixed income markets, money markets and derivatives.  He championed the introduction into India of the Overnight Index Swap (OIS), which is today India’s most liquid traded interest rate swap instrument.

Pavan has written for newspapers and magazines (Economic Times, Indian Express, Sanctuary) to popularize the concept and measurement of green economic growth.  He has also lectured frequently on these and related topics at forums such as IUCN (Geneva and Asia), the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and more.

Pavan pursues long-standing interests in environmental economics and nature conservation through his work with environmental organizations in India and Europe.  Beyond his contributions to TEEB and the Green Economy Initiative, his work in this area includes:  founding and serving as Director of the Green Accounting for Indian States Project, an initiative of the Green Indian States Trust (GIST); serving as President of Conservation Action Trust (CAT);  co-founding and now serving as Trustee of India Environment Trust (IET).

In his spare time, Pavan also manages a model rainforest restoration and eco-tourism project in Tarzali, North  Queensland, Australia, and an organic farming and eco-tourism venture in the Nilgiri hills of south India.