Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah

Dhananjayan Sivaguru ("Danny") Sriskandarajah (born December 1975) is the Chief Executive of Oxfam GB. Until December 2018, he was the Secretary General of CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organisations.[2] Prior to that, Danny was Director General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, a large NGO devoted to Commonwealth affairs based in London, and was the first non-British and youngest person to head this 140-year-old organisation.[2]

Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah
Personal details
CitizenshipAustralian,
British[1]
NationalitySri Lankan
Spouse(s)Suzanne Lambert
Alma materUniversity of Sydney,
University of Oxford
ProfessionActivist

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 and well mentored by Art Herger.[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 Wesley College, a residential college within, but separate from, the university.[6]

After becoming the first Asian Australian to win a Rhodes scholarship in 1998,[3][7] 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.[8]

Career

Sriskandarajah held various posts from 2004 to 2009 including Deputy Director of the left-leaning think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research.[9]

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 was the Secretary General of CIVICUS a global alliance of civil society organisations, headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, 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).[2] In this role Sriskandarajah regularly represented civil society at international fora including the UN General Assembly in New York and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Danny was appointed the Chief Executive of Oxfam GB in January 2019.

He is a Trustee of Comic Relief.[10]

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

He is known as both a researcher and commentator on foreign policy and democracy, including as a guest on the BBC World Service and contributor to the Guardian and Al Jazeera. He has written books and reports on several migration-related topics, including on British emigration.[13]

Sriskandarajah is an outspoken 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]

Personal life

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

References
  1. "Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah". Companies in the UK.
  2. "Global civil society network CIVICUS announces new leader". Civicus.org. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  3. (28 October 1997.) "Migrants' son is Australia's first Asian Rhodes Scholar", The Straits Times.
  4. 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. Sriskandarajah, Dhananjayan (2005). "Socio-economic inequality and ethno-political conflict: some observations from Sri Lanka". Contemporary South Asia. 14 (3): 341–356. doi:10.1080/09584930500463792.
  9. Travis, Alan (9 January 2008). "Fewer Britons in work due to ageing population and emigration rather than migrants, says report". Politics section. The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  10. "Comic Relief". Comic Relief.
  11. "Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation". UN. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  12. Redvers, Louise (18 January 2016). "UN aid panel calls for 'grand bargain' on finance". Analysis. IRIN. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  13. Sriskandarajah, Dhananjayan; Catherine Drew (11 December 2006). "Viewpoint: Expats chasing dreams". BBC News, Online edition. Retrieved 7 April 2009.
  14. "Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly". Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
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