Board of Governors
as of 1 October 2008
CHAIR
His Excellency, the Honourable Burchell Whiteman, O.J.
Jamaican High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
Retired Senator and former Minister of Information
and former Minister of Education and Culture, Jamaica
MEMBERS
Commonwealth Secretary-General:
Mr. Kamalesh Sharma
Appointments by Major Donors:
GOVERNMENT OF CANADA (Canadian International Development Agency)
Ms. Denise Chong
Writer and author
Former senior economic adviser to former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Shri R. P. Agrawal
Secretary, Secondary and Higher Education
Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development
GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND (New Zealand Agency for International Development)
Dr. Linda Sissons
Chief Executive Officer
Wellington Institute of Technology
GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA
His Excellency Professor Michael Omolewa
Ambassador/Permanent Delegate
The Permanent Delegation of Nigeria to UNESCO (Paris)
(formerly Head of the Department of Adult Education and Director of the External Studies Programme, University of Ibadan, and a formerly Coordinator for West Africa, African Association for Distance Education)
GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH AFRICA
Ms. Jenny Glennie
Director
South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE)
DEPUTY CHAIR of the COL Board of Governors
GOVERNMENT OF UNITED KINGDOM
Dr. David Levesque
Senior Education Adviser Education and Skills, Policy Division
Department for International Development
Regional Appointments on the Advice of Commonwealth Ministers of Education:
AFRICA
Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr
former Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities
and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana
ASIA
The Honourable Zahiya Zareer
Minister of Education
Maldives
CARIBBEAN
(vacant)
PACIFIC
The Honourable Dr. Dame Carol Kidu
Minister for Community Development
Papua New Guinea
Appointment by the Commonwealth Secretary-General:
(vacant)
President (Ex-Officio):
Sir John Daniel
President and C.E.O., Commonwealth of Learning
Professor John Tarrant
Secretary General
Association of Commonwealth Universities
