Paloma Baena Olabe is a governance, public policy and international development professional with more than 17 years of experience in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. She has worked with heads of governments and leaders of the public and academic sectors in over 20 countries, leading complex multi-party negotiations, creating strategies and conceptual frameworks and delivering transformational projects to drive growth, investment and better public services in developing and OECD countries alike.

She is currently the Vice President of Global Partnerships & Policy at Clarity AI.  Paloma was previously the Director for Organizational Governance, and Member Advisory for Save the Children International, where she led the global transformation of the largest organization for children in the world, reaching over 155 million children in 120 countries each year. She has also worked at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) where she was Deputy Head of the Public Sector Integrity Division and Senior Counsellor for Policy and Strategy, engaging with heads of governments of OECD countries to develop and implement policy reforms in public management, that lead to more transparency and integrity, better services and more inclusive growth.  Prior to the OECD, Paloma worked at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where she established and led the Transparency Technical Area, leading to large financial operations and transformative projects with governments across LatinAmerica and the Caribbean; she also worked at the World Bank, where she advised governments and investors on business climate and public-private partnerships. She started her career in the private sector, as a strategic management consultant for the public sector (PricewaterhouseCoopers) and as a legal counsel on international project finance operations in the top-ranked law firm Cuatrecasas Abogados.

Paloma has published on public management, development, growth and inequality and transparency issues. She has taught strategy, management and public policy at the Adolfo Ibanez University in Santiago, Chile, and at several master degree programs in the polytechnic school of Madrid. Since January 2019, she is a non-executive Board member for the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation for Human Rights.

Paloma holds a J.D. from Complutense University in Madrid, a Maîtrese in International Law from Aix-Marseille III and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, focused on political and economic development and public leadership. She is a citizen of Spain and of the United States of America.