ARRIVAL LOUNGE
“CANADA’S BEST DAYS ARE STILL AHEAD”
Kumaran Nadesan is the Group Chief Executive Officer of 369 Global.
Kumaran Nadesan has spent the better part of two decades “watching Canada punch below its weight – politely”. That’s why he wrote The Impolite Canadian: Why Playing Nice is Costing Us the Future.
Nadesan is the Group Chief Executive Officer of 369 Global, a Canada-based group of companies with business interests in skills training and workforce development, media and communications, and global market facilitation. 369 Global’s portfolio includes Computek College, one of Canada’s long -standing career colleges and 3 Magazine, an international smart luxury media platform.
Nadesan worked for the government of Ontario for 15 years before joining 369 Global. As a public servant, he held progressively senior roles in several ministries including intergovernmental affairs, business development, stakeholder management, communications, policy and program advisory. His focus on innovation, program design, and values-based leadership earned him numerous awards from the governments of Canada and Ontario, and he was most recently honoured with the Inspirational Leader of the Year Award at the 2024 National Business Awards by Canadian SME Magazine.
He is an active community animator and has co-founded several initiatives to build long-term collective capacity deepening the multicultural mosaic of Canada. He is a Director at Canada-India Business Council and previously served as a young adviser to the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.
Nadesan was named a 2018 DiverseCity Fellow by the CivicAction Leadership Foundation and the 2020 Established Professional of the Year by the Canadian Tamil Professionals Association for his community contributions. He graduated from the University of Toronto Scarborough with a degree in English Literature and Psychology and completed a graduate certificate in Strategic Public Management at the Schulich School of Business, York University.
Since his university days, Kumaran has actively fundraised for several causes both within Canada and around the world. Over the past twenty years, he has harnessed his passion, work ethic, and networks to catalyse several initiatives, especially in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada and within the traditional Tamil homelands in Sri Lanka.
He now undertakes much of his philanthropy through the Selvayogam Foundation. Named after Kumaran’s maternal grandparents, Selvarajah Rasiah and Sivayogam Subramaniam, who helped raise him as a young boy, the Selvayogam Foundation has supported a number of education, healthcare, faith-based, and international development organisations.
He currently resides in Ontario with his partner, Tharshiga Elankeeran, and two children.
The Impolite Canadian: Why Playing Nice is Costing Us the Future by Kumaran Nadesan releases in Canada and worldwide in June this year.
His debut book releases in Canada and worldwide in June this year. He describes it as a challenge to our comfort with caution, consensus, and complacency – and a call for Canada to lead with confidence, clarity, and conviction in a far more competitive world.
“This book is for doers and thinkers, entrepreneurs and catalysts, politicians and public servants, allies at home and abroad, and anyone who believes Canada’s best days are still ahead – if we’re willing to stop being so polite about it.”
To preorder copies, visit Amazon.ca or theimpolitecanadian.ca.
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