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: World Alliance for Citizen Participation,.[2][3] 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.[4]
Early life and education
Sriskandarajah was born in Sri Lanka, the son of Sri Lankan Tamils. He migrated to Australia at a young age.[5]
Sriskandarajah was educated at James Ruse Agricultural High School in Carlingford, New South Wales, graduating in 1993. He was the school captain.[6]
Sriskandarajah then attended the University of Sydney,[7] 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.[8]
After winning a Rhodes scholarship in 1998,[9] 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. He finally took the Bar Professional Training Course for the University of Law.[5]
Career
Before being appointed to the RCS, he was Deputy Director of the left-leaning think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research.[10]
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.[11] 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.[12]
In 2012, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Personal life
On 16 August 2003, Sriskandarajah married Trinidadian[13] Suzanne Julia Lambert in Trinidad, West Indies.[6] She is a barrister and a member of the Administrative and Constitutional Law, the London Common Law and Commercial, and the Personal Injury Bar Associations as well as the Trinidad and Tobago Bar Association.[14][15] She, like Sriskandarajah, is a Rhodes scholar, albeit of the Caribbean region. Lambert earned a B.A. summa cum laude in Geography and Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College and was a member of the Dartmouth chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, a B.A. (First-Class Honours) in Jurisprudence at Exeter College, University of Oxford, and a B.V.C. (Bar Vocation Course) (Very Competent; Outstanding in Drafting and Advocacy) at the College of Law in London (now the University of Law).
References
- ↑ "Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah". Companies in the UK.
- ↑
- ↑ "Global civil society network CIVICUS announces new leader". Civicus.org. Retrieved 2014-01-21.
- ↑ "Danny Sriskandarajah" (PDF). Retrieved 2009-04-07.
- 1 2 (28 October 1997.) "Migrants' son is Australia's first Asian Rhodes Scholar", The Straits Times.
- 1 2 Woo, Eddie (9 April 2012). "2. 1993 News". James Ruse Union.
- ↑ "Commonwealth". University of Sydney.
- ↑ "Academic - Wesley College". Wesley College.
- ↑ "Rhodes scholars - Alumni & Friends". University of Sydney.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Sriskandarajah, Dhananjayan; Catherine Drew (2006-12-11). "Viewpoint: Expats chasing dreams". BBC News, Online edition. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "Global civil society network CIVICUS announces new leader". Civicus. 17 September 2012.
- ↑ "Suzanne Lambert". Justice.
- ↑ "Suzanne Lambert CV" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-01-21.
External links
- Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah on Twitter
- Works by or about Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Interview with Danny Skiskandarajah