Board of Governors
as of 1 April 2008
Dr. Lewis Perinbam O.C., 1925 - 2007
Chair of COL's Board of Governors,
28 April 2003 to 12 December 2007
ACTING CHAIR
His Excellency, the Honourable Burchell Whiteman, O.J.
Jamaican High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
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)
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
(vacant)
ASIA
Dr. Tara de Mel
Chairperson
Worldview, Sri Lanka
and former Secretary, Ministry of Education
Sri Lanka
CARIBBEAN
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
VICE CHAIR OF THE BOARD
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
Advisor to the Board:
Professor John Tarrant
Secretary General
Association of Commonwealth Universities
