Dr. Ruth Kattumuri is a British Indian Academic and Diplomat renowned for her leadership in climate change and environmental sustainability. She brings over twenty-five years of experience involving teaching and training, evidence-based research, technical assistance, capacity building and policy influence globally working across various public and private sectors and inter-governmental institutions globally. She currently serves as Senior Director of the Economic, Youth & Sustainable Development Directorate at the Commonwealth Secretariat, where she provides vision, technical and thought leadership across economic development, debt management, climate change for innovative, resilient and sustainable development. Her expertise spans innovation and technology, entrepreneurship, international development and climate finance. Dr. Kattumuri leads the development of interdisciplinary programs in collaboration with Commonwealth member countries toward achieving their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Instrumental in advancing economic, fiscal and climate resilience, she designed and developed the Commonwealth Universal Vulnerability Index (UVI), toward understanding vulnerability and inform provisioning access to development and climate finance. Her initiatives also focus on enhancing access to development and climate finance, essential for building resilience for vulnerable communities and countries. Dr. Kattumuri's leadership spans projects like Building Climate Resilience for Urban Poor (BCRUP), involving engagement across 20 countries in Africa, which strengthens NDCs through green climate-resilient urban planning, green urban economy promotion, and sustainable community adaptation strategies and enabling resource mobilization to achieve their goals.

With a PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE), she previously has held key roles including, the Director of Asia Research Centre, as well as being the Co-Chair and Founder of the IG Patel Chair and India Observatory at the London School of Economics. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and is a Cambridge Commonwealth Fellow. Her academic rigour and dedication to equitable and sustainable development continue to drive impactful research and policy influence and implementation for a resilient future and the protection of people and planet.