The Commonwealth of Learning announces the appointment of Dr. K. Balasubramanian (Bala) as the new Vice President of COL who will take up the appointment on 16 October 2015.

Dr. Bala has a vast range of experience in international development as well as in the university, government and non-governmental sectors at senior levels which makes him an excellent fit for the post of Vice President. He is an acknowledged thought-leader in the field of ‘learning for sustainable development’ and has been working in this area since 1989. Prior to joining COL in 2009 as Education Specialist (Agriculture & Livelihoods), he worked as a consultant with a number of international organisations (2003-2008), was the Director of J.R.D Tata Ecotechnology Center of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (1995-2002) and held the post of Executive Director, Society for Social Forestry Research and Development (1993-1995) aided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. His areas of specialisation include programme planning and management, fundraising, monitoring and evaluation and ICT-enabled human resource development.

Since joining COL, Bala has contributed to its reputation as an innovative organisation through the Lifelong Learning for Farmers programme, which has won awards and was rated as ‘one of the most impactful initiatives’ by the impact evaluators.

A national of India, he obtained his Ph. D. degree from Bangalore University.

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