Avinash Persaud is Special Advisor on Climate Change to the President of the Inter-American Development Bank. Persaud has over 30 years of experience in finance, public policy, and academia. Prior to this appointment in January 2024, he was Special Climate Envoy to the Prime Minister of Barbados and an architect of the 'Bridgetown Initiative’ that played an instrumental role in helping to set the international financial reform agenda in recent years.

Persaud is a member of the High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance of the COP26, 27 and 28 Presidencies and a member of the Independent Expert group on Debt, Nature and Climate, established by the Governments of Colombia, France and Kenya. He previously served as Chairman of the Caribbean Community's Commission on the Economy and Commissioner of the UN Commission on Financial Reform.  Prior to his public policy roles, Persaud was a senior executive at several major banks including J. P. Morgan, State Street and UBS.

Persaud has authored multiple academic publications with particular emphasis on financial policy. An Emeritus Professor of Gresham College in the UK, he is 2024 Perry World Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, former Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute and winner of the Jacques de Larosiere Award in Global Finance for his work on financial risk management and systemic crises.