Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Citizenship | Australian, British [1] |
Nationality | Australian, British |
Spouse | Suzanne Lambert |
Alma mater | University of Sydney, University of Oxford |
Profession | Activist |
Dhananjayan Sivaguru "Danny" Sriskandarajah (born December 1975) is a Sri Lankan-born British-Australian activist who currently serves as the Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation.
Until December 2023, he was Chief Executive of Oxfam GB. [2] Prior to that, Sriskandarajah was the Secretary General of CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organisations. [3] He was the first non-British and youngest person to head the Royal Commonwealth Society, a large NGO devoted to Commonwealth affairs, based in London. [3]
Sriskandarajah was born in Sri Lanka, the son of Sri Lankan Tamils. He migrated to Australia at a young age. [4]
Sriskandarajah was educated at James Ruse Agricultural High School in Carlingford, New South Wales, Australia, graduating in 1993. He was the school captain and well mentored by Art Herger. [5]
Sriskandarajah then attended the University of Sydney, [6] from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Economics and Social Science in 1998. During 1995 and 1996, he resided at Wesley College, a residential college within, but separate from, the university. [7]
After becoming the first Asian Australian to win a Rhodes scholarship in 1998, [4] [8] Sriskandarajah then matriculated to Magdalen College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, to read for an M.Phil. and then a D.Phil. in international development. His research focused on inequalities and ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. [9]
Sriskandarajah held various posts from 2004 to 2009 including Deputy Director of the left-leaning think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research. [10]
He was Director General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, from 2009 to 2012, the youngest ever person and the first non-Briton to head this 140-year-old organisation. [3] In 2012, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. [3]
He was the Secretary General of CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organisations from January 2013 to December 2018. He was the fourth person to hold this position, following Miklos Marschall (Hungary), Kumi Naidoo (South Africa) and Ingrid Srinath (India). [3]
In July 2018, Sriskandarajah was announced as a member of the UN Secretary General's High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, co-chaired by Jack Ma and Melinda Gates. [11] He was previously a member of the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Finance from 2015 to 2016. [12]
Sriskandarajah served as Chief Executive of Oxfam GB between January 2019 and December 2023.
He was appointed Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation in January 2024. [13]
Sriskandarajah is a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations. [14]
On 16 August 2003, Sriskandarajah married Trinidadian barrister Suzanne Julia Lambert in Trinidad, West Indies. [5]
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The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is a British think-tank that promotes "social, economic and environmental justice".
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Wesley College is a co-residential college of 265 students within the University of Sydney. The college occupies a site on the main campus of the University of Sydney and was built on a sub-grant of Crown land. Wesley is one of six on-campus colleges at the University of Sydney which provide accommodation. In 1923 the college averaged 45 students. Originally the college accommodated only men but when women were admitted in 1969 Wesley became the first of the colleges within the University of Sydney to become co-educational. Its current head is Lisa Sutherland, who has held the position since 2010.
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