Global Head of Sustainable Investing
BlackRock
Paul Bodnar, Managing Director, is Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock. Paul’s team drives BlackRock’s leadership in sustainable investing through the development of cutting-edge climate and sustainability research and integration of these insights throughout BlackRock's suite of investment solutions and Aladdin.
Paul previously served as Chief Strategy Officer at RMI, a global non-profit working to accelerate the clean energy transition. While at RMI, he founded the Center for Climate-Aligned Finance to support some of the world’s largest financial institutions transition to net-zero emissions portfolios. He also helped establish the Mission Possible Partnership to orchestrate net-zero sector transformation platforms for seven global industries.
Prior to this, Paul served in the Obama White House as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change at the National Security Council. He was a key architect of the Obama Administration's international climate policies culminating in the Paris Agreement, including the U.S.-China climate deal of 2014. Additionally, Paul has served at the State Department as U.S. lead negotiator for climate finance and led the design of numerous initiatives including the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance and the U.S.-Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative.
Earlier in his career, Paul was Director for Carbon Finance at the $1.2 billion carbon fund managed by London-based Climate Change Capital, where he structured the fund's largest deals. He was also co-founder and partner at Vertis Environmental Finance, now one of Europe’s leading environmental commodity brokerage firms.
Paul holds a BA from Stanford and an MA from Harvard, both in international relations.