Denise Odaro joined PAI Partners in 2022 as Head of ESG & Sustainability. She is responsible for guiding the firm's sustainability strategy, integrating ESG principles into investments, and driving sustainability portfolio performance to create value. She represents the firm in various industry groups. She is a member of The Invest Europe ESG Working Group and sits on the Responsible Investment Advisory Group of the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) as well as the Private Equity Task Force under the Sustainable Markets Initiative.

Prior to joining PAI, Denise held a leadership position at The World Bank Group's private sector arm IFC, where she oversaw investor relations and sustainable finance coordination. In this role, she managed significant initiatives such as the multi-billion dollar green and social bonds programmes, impact reporting, ESG assessments, engagement, and sustainability integration across different asset classes.

Denise has played a crucial role in shaping the sustainable finance industry, working extensively on the integration of ESG into mainstream investment products. She held a prominent position as the Chair of the Steering Committee of the Green, Social and Sustainability Linked Bond Principles, widely recognised as the leading framework for thematic bonds, hosted under the International Capital Market Association (ICMA).

She has received numerous industry accolades, including being recognised as the "Personality of the Year" in 2020 by Environmental Finance Magazine. She was also named one of the Twenty Most Influential in ESG by PE News for 2023, received the Women in Finance 2023 - Sustainability Lead award, and was featured on The Empower 100 Executives Role Models list for 2022.

Earlier in her career, she was an underwriter in the Oil, Gas, Chemicals, Mining and Energy division at MIGA, the World Bank Group’s political risk mitigation arm and worked in various capital markets roles at Lehman Brothers, GE Capital and Goldman Sachs.

She holds an MA in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge, an MBA from Cornell University and is an alumna of the Emerging Leaders Program at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.