Rodrigo Tavares, Ph.D.
Founder and Senior Partner
Rodrigo Tavares has built an international career spanning finance, sustainable development, and foreign affairs, combining academic research with leadership roles in government, international organizations, and business.
He founded Granito Group in 2015 and has since led its strategic development, overseen key projects, and cultivated international partnerships, shaping the firm's long-term vision and growth.
From 2011 to 2014, he served as Head of the Office for International Affairs of the Government of São Paulo, Brazil (later rebranded as the Secretariat for International Relations), leading the foreign affairs of a state whose economy ranked among the 20 largest in the world. During his tenure, São Paulo strengthened its position as one of the most internationally active subnational governments. Between 2008 and 2010, he was invited by the United Nations Secretariat to author Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's annual reports on Africa's development, presented to the UN General Assembly. This work involved extensive research and diplomatic engagement across several African and European countries. He has also spent five years at the United Nations University, the UN's official think tank, working in Belgium and Ethiopia.
Alongside his work in public policy, Rodrigo has pursued an extensive academic career. He is currently an Adjunct Full Professor (Professor Catedrático Convidado) at NOVA School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), Portugal, where he teaches and conducts research in finance, corporate sustainability, and critical minerals. In the Financial Times 2026 rankings, Nova SBE's master's programs ranked 2nd worldwide in Management and 8th in Finance. His academic career includes appointments at Harvard University (Senior Research Fellow), Columbia University (Research Fellow on a postdoctoral grant awarded by the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education), the University of California, Berkeley (Visiting Research Fellow), and the University of Gothenburg (Ph.D.). He was also a Visiting Professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) in Brazil from 2013 to 2018, receiving a teaching award in 2017 for achieving the highest student evaluations. He has completed executive programs in Negotiation (Harvard, 2006), Global Leadership (Harvard, 2021), Energy Transition (Princeton, 2022), and Artificial Intelligence (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2023).
Rodrigo is the author of five books and numerous academic articles on international relations, economic development, finance, and sustainability. His books have been published by Oxford University Press, Routledge, Lynne Rienner, and Grupo Editorial Record, while his research has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Sustainable Communities, California Management Review, and the Journal of Environmental Investing. His book Paradiplomacy: Cities and States as Global Players (Oxford University Press) is an international reference in the field.
Beyond academia, Rodrigo is a columnist for Folha de S.Paulo (Brazil) and Expresso (Portugal), and a radio commentator on TSF (Portugal). His analyses and opinions have appeared in international outlets such as The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Economist, Fortune, Forbes, LSE Business Review, MIT Technology Review, Quartz, Arab News, and the World Economic Forum.
He was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (2017) and as a Young Leader by the Government of Québec (2011).
