Sri Lankan elected as Lead position of the Royal Commonwealth Society

Source:Island

Sustainability activist and social entrepreneur Anoka Abeyratne has been elected as the Environmental Lead for the Royal Commonwealth Society. She is the first Sri Lankan to have been so elected. A Forbes under 30, the first female World Economic Forum New Champion of Sri Lanka and the youngest Commonwealth Youth Awardee, Anoka is the co-founder of Growin Money and Ignited.

With over a decade of experience in environmental conservation and advocacy Anoka played a key role in the advocacy for the designation of Mangroves as a protected species in Sri Lanka and the Animal Welfare Bill for which her petition gained over 120000 signatures in less than 36 hours pushing the Bill back into the spotlight. A British Council International Climate Champion, Anoka has worked the corporate, civil and government sectors, the latter as an Assistant Director, therefore has the rare distinction of the inner workings of environmental policy and action at grassroots.

An alumnus of Bishop’s College, Anoka is a graduate of the Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge and the University of Colombo.