Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah

Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah
Personal details
Citizenship Australian,
British[1]
Nationality Sri Lankan
Spouse(s) Suzanne Lambert
Alma mater University of Sydney,
University of Oxford
Profession Activist

Dhananjayan Sivaguru ("Danny") Sriskandarajah (born December 1975) is the Secretary General of CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organisations.[2] He was Director General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, a large NGO devoted to Commonwealth affairs based in London. He was the first non-British and youngest person to head this 140-year-old organisation.[2]

Early life and education

Sriskandarajah was born in Sri Lanka, the son of Sri Lankan Tamils. He migrated to Australia at a young age.[3]

Sriskandarajah was educated at James Ruse Agricultural High School in Carlingford, New South Wales, Australia, graduating in 1993. He was the school captain.[4]

Sriskandarajah then attended the University of Sydney,[5] from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Economics and Social Science in 1998. During 1995 and 1996, he resided at Welsey College, a residential college within, but separate from, the university.[6]

After winning a Rhodes scholarship in 1998,[7] Sriskandarajah then matriculated to the Magdalen College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, to read for an M.Phil. and then a D.Phil. Sriskandarajah is Australia's first Asian Rhodes scholar.[3]

Career

Sriskandarajah held various posts from 2004 to 2009 including Deputy Director of the left-leaning think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research.[8]

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 organisation.[2]

He has been the Secretary General of CIVICUS since January 2013. He is the fourth to hold this position following Miklos Marschall (Hungary), Kumi Naidoo (South Africa) and Ingrid Srinath (India). [2]

In this role Sriskandarajah regularly represents civil society at international meetings including the UN General Assembly in New York and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Sriskandarajah was a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Humanitarian Finance from 2015 to 2016. [9]

He is a well-known researcher and commentator on migration issues. He has written books and reports on several migration-related topics, including on British emigration.[10] He often appears in the UK media taking a liberal position on immigration issues and writes often in the Financial Times and The Guardian newspaper.

In March 2009, the Royal Commonwealth Society published a poll on British attitudes to Commonwealth, which attracted media coverage in the UK and abroad. Sriskandarajah had a piece in The Guardian on the poll findings.[11]

In 2012, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.[2]

Personal life

On 16 August 2003, Sriskandarajah married Trinidadian Suzanne Julia Lambert in Trinidad, West Indies.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah". Companies in the UK.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Global civil society network CIVICUS announces new leader". Civicus.org. Retrieved 2014-01-21.
  3. 1 2 (28 October 1997.) "Migrants' son is Australia's first Asian Rhodes Scholar", The Straits Times.
  4. 1 2 Woo, Eddie (9 April 2012). "2. 1993 News". James Ruse Union.
  5. ↑ "Commonwealth". University of Sydney.
  6. ↑ "Academic - Wesley College". Wesley College.
  7. ↑ "Rhodes scholars - Alumni & Friends". University of Sydney.
  8. ↑ Travis, Alan (2008-01-09). "Fewer Britons in work due to ageing population and emigration rather than migrants, says report". Politics section. The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  9. ↑ Redvers, Louise (2016-01-18). "UN aid panel calls for ‘grand bargain’ on finance". Analysis. IRIN. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  10. ↑ Sriskandarajah, Dhananjayan; Catherine Drew (2006-12-11). "Viewpoint: Expats chasing dreams". BBC News, Online edition. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  11. ↑ Sriskandarajah, Dhananjayan (2009-03-09). "A true agent of progress: to avoid becoming a relic, the Commonwealth must make itself more relevant to young people". Comment. The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-04-07.


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