Nishan De Mel

Nishan de Mel

Executive Director

BA (Harvard), PhD (Oxford)

Nishan is an economist with extensive academic, policy and private sector experience. Nishan taught and researched economics at Oxford and Harvard universities. In the 1990s, he sat on multiple Presidential Task Forces in Sri Lanka, playing an instrumental role in designing national policies on Health Sector Reform, Social Security and Tobacco & Alcohol. He also served as the Executive Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies and the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. He sits on multiple private sector boards and consults regularly as a strategist for some of the region’s largest firms. Nishan completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, and his graduate studies at Oxford University, where he was a Chevening Scholar.