Biography: Shridath Ramphal

Sir Shridath Ramphal is the former Secretary-General of the British Commonwealth. He is Co-Chair of the Commission on Global Governance, President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and Chair of the International Steering Committee of the Rockefeller Foundation's Leadership in Environmental and Development (LEAD) Programme.

Shridath Ramphal was Chair of the West lndian Commission, whose report, provided to Caribbean Heads of Government in 1992, made detailed recommendations for the future of the region.

In 1991, he was a Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). His book, Our Country, the Planet: Forging a Partnership for Survival, was written for the conference and has been published in several languages. Sir Shridath Ramphal was Chancellor of the University of Guyana from 1990 to 1992, and is currently Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and the University of Warwick in Britain.

Besides serving on the Brandt Commission, he has also served on five other independent international commissions which considered global issues: the Palme Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues, the Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development, the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues, and the South Commission. The Commission on Global Governance, of which Sir Shridath is Co-Chair (with Swedish Prime Minister Ingmar Carlsson), issued its report, Our Global Neighborhood, in 1995.

Popularly known throughout the Caribbean as "Sonny" Ramphal, Sir Shridath was born in Guyana, descended from indentured Indian laborers. He is a member of the board of directors of Innovative Communications Corporation and was honored by the government of India as the 2002 recipient of the prestigious "Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development".