Paul Cadario

Paul Cadario is the University of Toronto’s Distinguished Fellow in Global Innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and the  Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. Before his appointment to U of T in 2012, Paul spent his 37-year career at the World Bank, where he played a number of diverse roles worldwide, starting with the Bank’s frontline development programs for Western Africa and for the People’s Republic of China, and then on public sector reform in Asia. In 1998, he began working on the Bank’s efforts to modernize and streamline its business for the digital age of transparency and accountability, with the renewal of the Bank’s global information systems. Focusing on results, quality assurance and compliance, from 2001 he oversaw the multi-billion dollar trust fund portfolio of grants managed and disbursed by the World Bank as a trustee for its development partners. Over the course of his career, his work took him from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, from Guinea to Indonesia, from Guinea-Bissau to China, and from Burundi to Bhutan. 

Active on Facebook, Twitter, and Threads Cadario is a frequent contributor to public discussions on global development, global governance, anticorruption, cyber and AI issues, and effective organizations. 

Cadario earned his BASc in civil engineering from the University of Toronto in 1973. A Rhodes Scholar, he received a BA and MA in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford. In 1999, he earned a master’s degree in organization development from American University. In 2013, UofT awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Laws in recognition of his career in international development and his service to the University. 

Cadario has long worked on diversity issues, first at the World Bank, where he was one of the founders of GLOBE (Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual Employees), an early informal and formal mentor to young, new, and diverse staff, and a contributor to the Bank’s formal analysis of diversity metrics and the actions that were needed to improve diversity and inclusion. His degree in organization development addressed issues of diversity, structural racism and inequality in its various dimensions.  

Cadario lives in Washington, D.C. with his spouse, Dan Gordon, a retired attorney and former Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the Obama Administration.

Cadario collects Inuit art and frequent flyer points. 

Updated July 2023