Piera Tortora is the Head of the OECD Sustainable Ocean for All Initiative. The Initiative aims at providing original evidence and policy advice to support countries transition to sustainable ocean economies, with a specific focus on the role of international development co-operation and developing countries. She has led the work of the Initiative since 2019. Piera joined the OECD in 2011, where she previously led work on Financing for Sustainable Development, including on Multilateral Development Finance, Small Island Developing States, and Transition Finance. In 2022 Piera also led a large portfolio of country projects on sustainable tourism in the OECD Center for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities.

Prior to joining the OECD, Piera conducted and managed economic analyses on policy issues relating to economic development, mainly in low and middle income countries, including at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (UN-FAO), as an independent consultant, for the Italian natural resources and water management agency of Italy, and at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Piera holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and lectured at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, the University Sant’Anna in Pisa and at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.