Dr. Adriana Abdenur is Co-President of the Global Fund for a New Economy (GFNE), which aims to foster innovative economic thinking and initiatives around the world. Between 2023 and 2025, she was Special Advisor in international affairs in the office of President Lula. A Brazilian policymaker and scholar, she co-founded Plataforma CIPÓ, a think tank headquartered in Rio de Janeiro and dedicated to issues of international relations, climate change and sustainable development. Dr. Abdenur earned a Ph.D. in sociology of development from Princeton University and an AB in East Asian Studies from Harvard University.  She has taught at universities in the United States, Brazil and France and has published widely on global governance, sustainable development and peacebuilding.  She sits on the Advisory Board of a number of UN entities, including UNITAR and UNU-CRIS, and served two terms on the ECOSOC Committee on Development Policy.  In 2025, she was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa to the G20 Extraordinary Committee on Global Inequality, led by Joseph Stiglitz.