Jorge Gastelumendi is the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock). In this role, he leads the center, overseeing the center’s three strategic pillars: extreme heat resilience, adaptation policy and finance, and climate games and technology. As a recognized climate and environmental policy and finance leader, Gastelumendi brings over twenty-five years of climate and policy experience.

Before joining Arsht-Rock, he held positions at the Nature Conservancy, where he served as managing director of external affairs for global strategies and previously served as head of the Nature Conservancy’s international climate finance team. He also served as chief advisor and negotiator to the government of Peru, playing a critical role during the adoption of the Paris Agreement in the government’s dual role as president of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) and co-chair of the Green Climate Fund’s board. Earlier in his career, Gastelumendi was a carbon fund manager at the World Bank’s Carbon Finance Unit. He also worked as a natural resources lawyer in Peru for over a decade.

Driven by a commitment to protect the communities most vulnerable to climate impacts, Gastelumendi joined Arsht-Rock in January 2020 to advance the center’s critical political and economic work. With deep experience in delivering policy and public finance solutions, Gastelumendi is a leader in addressing climate challenges. During his tenure at the center, he has also held the role of the Race to Resilience co-lead for the United Nations Climate Change High-Level Champions.

Gastelumendi’s analysis has been featured in outlets including Project Syndicate and Marsh McLennan. Gastelumendi holds a JD from Peru’s Catholic University, a master’s degree in energy and the environment from the University of Calgary, and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.