Amb (Retd.) Geetha De Silva

Secretary General – PFIOSC

Ambassador (Retd.) Geetha de Silva is the Executive Director of the South Asia Policy and Research Institute (SAPRI) based in Colombo. She was a member of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service and her last diplomatic assignment was as High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Canada.

During her Foreign Service career spanning over 25 years she served as Deputy Chief of Mission with Ambassador rank at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington D.C., Counselor at the Sri Lanka Embassy in Japan, Deputy Permanent Delegate of Sri Lanka to UNESCO, and Counselor, Sri Lanka Embassy, Paris, amongst other assignments. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs she held the positions of Additional Foreign Secretary/Political Affairs; Director General /South Asia and SAARC; and Director, United Nations/Human Rights; in addition to others.

She has participated in and contributed to international and regional conferences while she was at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and after retirement from the Ministry, during her tenures at the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies(RCSS), Sri Lanka, as Associate Director(2007-2010), at One Text Initiative(OTI), Sri Lanka, as Director (2010-2012) and during her present assignment (2012 onward).

A graduate of the University of Colombo, she holds a Masters degree in Conflict and Peace Studies from the University of Colombo and a Diploma in International Relations of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies. She is an alumna of the Harvard, Kennedy School, USA and the Near East & South Asia Centre for Strategic Studies (NESA) of the National Defense University of USA.