Sandeep Pai

Dr. Sandeep Pai is a Senior Lead, International Energy Transitions and Executive in Residence at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University. He is affiliated with the Institute’s James E. Rogers Energy Access Project.

With over a decade of experience in major leadership roles at the intersection of research, program strategy, and policy, Pai has led global, high-impact initiatives in the areas of just energy transition, decarbonization of state-owned enterprises, and methane mitigation. Pai has worked with multilateral agencies like the Asian Development Bank, and think tanks such as the Center for Strategic & International Studies and Swaniti Global. He is a co-founder of the Council for Critical Minerals Development in the Global South, a joint initiative between the United Nations’ SEforAll, UC Davis and Swaniti Global. Prior to his career in research and policy, he worked as an investigative journalist for leading Indian newspapers, reporting on rural development, energy transition, and political corruption across South Asia.