Robert D. Patalano

Rob Patalano is the Executive Director and Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Transition Expertise (CETEx), which provides research, policy assessment, and capacity-building to help central banks and governments accelerate their transitions to low-carbon economies. He joined in 2025, after serving as a visiting professor in practice at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change since 2023.  He sets strategic direction of CETEx, including its research themes, policy initiatives, and geographic representation across G20 countries. He manages relationships with key international stakeholders across policy institutions and international bodies, and oversees governance, staffing and funding. Rob directs a team of over 50 research, policy and administrative staff, and also a network of visiting professors and consultants across Europe, Asia and Latin America. Rob serves as a chair, moderator, and panellist at conferences and roundtables on climate issues related to monetary, fiscal and financial market policies.

Background

Rob has three decades of public policy experience in monetary policy and operations, capital markets, financial stability, supervision and sustainability.  He was Head of the Market Intelligence and Analysis Division at the Bank of England, where he directed analytical work for both the Monetary and Financial Policy Committees, including on climate risks in financial markets. Prior to this, he was Head of the Financial Markets Division at the OECD, where he managed the Committee on Financial Markets, and led the policy initiative that resulted in the first OECD committee-endorsed principles for climate transition. Rob represented the OECD on the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group and the Network for Greening the Financial System, where he co-chaired a workstream on green markets. 

Prior to this, Rob spent five years as a member of the Secretiariat of the Financial Stability Board, which is an international body of national central banks, finance ministries and regulators that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. There, he managed the Standing Committee on Assessment of Vulnerabilities and served as Chair of the Analytical Group on Vulnerabilities. 

Previously, Rob spent a decade at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the European Central Bank, where he served on US crisis facilities during the Global Financial Crisis and on the Irish and Italian economic adjustment programmes during the euro area sovereign crisis. Earlier in his career, Rob was an investor relations consultant helping Asian finance ministries, investment promotion agencies and corporates gain access to funding with institutional investors.

He earned an MA in international economics and emerging markets from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), an MBA in finance and strategy from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Research interests

• central banking
• prudential policy
• financial stability
• sustainable finance
• financial market regulation