I was born in a refugee camp during a genocide that claimed the lives of millions of Cambodians.

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That beginning has shaped everything.

 

It meant I came into the world marked by the worst of what human beings can do to one another: war, displacement, violence, fear and loss.

 

But it also meant I was raised inside the best of what human beings can offer: courage, care, community and the stubborn belief that a better future is possible.

 

That belief became the foundation of my work.

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I began in working-class communities in the Global North, organising around economic opportunity, violence prevention and intercultural cooperation.

 

From there, my work moved into global human rights. At Amnesty International, I worked across democratic freedoms, women’s rights, LGBTQI rights, refugee protection and prisoners of conscience, learning that rights are not protected by statements alone. They are protected when people have the courage, infrastructure and collective power to defend them.

 

My work then moved more deeply into climate and environmental justice. Across Greenpeace, I worked on climate change, forests, oceans, plastic pollution, pesticides, toxic chemicals and food systems. I helped lead the development of Greenpeace’s 10-year global strategy, supported organisational transformation across a global network, worked in post-Fukushima Japan, and helped seed Greenpeace’s presence in parts of Asia, including Malaysia and Myanmar.

 

Over time, that work took me into international treaty negotiations in Europe, post-disaster recovery and movement-building in Japan, megacities across the Global South, and strategy rooms with civil society organisations, philanthropic foundations, impact investors, United Nations agencies, governments and change leaders across Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.

 

For more than 25 years, I have worked across climate, human rights, democracy, philanthropy and systems change, helping leaders, organisations and movements build the strategy, trust and power needed to create lasting impact.

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I later founded Rathana.org, a social impact consultancy that grew from a solo side hustle into a 57-person global consultancy across 15 markets, supporting organisations, governments and philanthropy working on some of the world’s most urgent challenges.

 

But burning the candle at both ends has consequences.

 

One Monday evening....

 

I had a heart attack.

 

That moment changed everything.

 

I became even clearer that the work before us cannot only be what is comfortable, fundable or easy to explain.

 

It must bravely step beyond the transactional into the transformative. Not as a nice-to-have, but as a foundational fixture of how all change-making work is done.

 

Our work must give hope that the world we have inherited can truly recalibrate toward the future we say we believe in. From the personal practice to the public policy.

 

That is why I founded the Multicultural Leadership Initiative, helped seed Asians for Climate Solutions, co-founded the Our Common Future Alliance, and co-authored Uncommon Sense. Each reflects a commitment to strengthening climate leadership, democratic participation and cross-cultural power. Uncommon Sense, developed with more than 120 practitioners across over 20 countries, brings together systems thinking, strategic communications and practical campaigning to help changemakers create lasting impact.

 

My work has been recognised through the Most Influential Asian-Australians list, Asia Pacific CEO of the Year in Environmental Sustainability, and a University of Technology Sydney Vice-Chancellor’s Human Rights Award.

 

But recognition has never been the reason for the work.

 

The deeper question has always been:

 

Did the work help people build power, dignity and possibility?

 

Or did we just reposition the status quo?