Pradeep Tharakan has over 18 years of experience focused on global clean energy investments and climate change response. His primary expertise is in the origination, financing, and delivery of large-scale clean energy investment programs in the public sector; policy analysis; the fostering of inter-governmental and public-private partnerships for effective development action; and development research. He currently serves as the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Regional Advisor (Energy Transition Financing) for south Asia. He is responsible for policy dialogue with senior government and sector stakeholders across the region, development of transition roadmaps, blueprints, strategic programs, development of innovative financing models, origination and definition of new projects and programs across renewables, cross-border power trade, energy storage, green hydrogen, and coal power phaseout. Previously, he was ADB’s lead for sovereign energy operations in the Greater Mekong subregion (2016-2022) based out of Thailand, and Energy Team Lead for Indonesia (2012-2016.), based out of Jakarta. Pradeep has been involved in the origination, implementation and close-out of public sector energy infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia totaling USD 3.0 billion, including renewable energy projects, large hydropower projects, and cross-border power trade projects. He has also led project facilitation and policy advisory work across a variety of technology areas such as solar auctions, off-shore wind power development, carbon capture and storage, rural electrification, and energy efficient lighting, and deployed a range of financing modalities such as blended finance including use of climate finance , ESG bonds, and policy-based and results-based loans. Notably, during 2021-2022, Pradeep served as the co-team leader for ADB's innovate program to phase out coal power plants and transition them to clean energy namely, the Energy Transition Mechanism. Pradeep’s research has been published in international journals such as Nature, Energy Policy, and Bioscience, among others. Pradeep has a PhD in the Environmental Sciences, an MBA, and a master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration.