The Commonwealth of Learning announces the appointment of Dr Venkataraman Balaji as the next Vice President of COL. He will take up the appointment on 1 January 2019.

Dr Balaji has a vast range of experience in development from his work in international organisations at a senior level. He has been an active and well-recognised leader in the interface between technology design and rural and agricultural development. Prior to joining COL in 2010 as Director: Technology & Knowledge Management, he worked at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) as the Global Leader for Knowledge Management and Sharing, and before then, he was Director of Informatics at M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. His areas of specialisation include programme planning and management, data analysis, monitoring and evaluation and ICT-enabled human resource development, especially for serving the disadvantaged.

Since joining COL, Dr Balaji has contributed to its reputation as an innovative organisation through various initiatives, including Aptus, MOOC for Development, as well as a number of publications and cutting-edge knowledge management and technology services.

A national of India, he obtained his Ph. D. degree from the University of Madras and his M.Sc. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.