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

That beginning has shaped everything.

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

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

 

For more than 25 years, I have worked with leaders, organisations and movements trying to build that future.

 

That work has taken me from working-class communities in the Global North, where I organised around economic opportunity, violence prevention and intercultural cooperation, to the megacities of the Global South, where I worked alongside people fighting for freedom, dignity and democracy.

It has taken me into post-nuclear disaster Japan, United Nations negotiation rooms across Europe, and strategy rooms with civil society organisations, philanthropic foundations, impact investors and change catalysts across Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.

 

Across those worlds, I have learned that change is not created by good intentions alone.

It is built through trust, strategy, courage, resources and the ability to bring people together around a shared direction. It is never only one campaign, one speech, one grant or one organisation. It is a system of choices: how people organise power, make decisions, build relationships, use resources and keep moving when the path ahead is uncertain.

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My work has always sat at the intersection of people and planet.

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Across Greenpeace, Amnesty International, United Nations agencies and many other spaces, I have worked on climate, forests, oceans, plastic pollution, pesticides, toxic chemicals and food systems, alongside women’s rights, LGBTQI rights, democratic freedoms, refugee protection and prisoners of conscience.

 

Those experiences eventually led me to found Rathana.org, a social impact consultancy group that grew to 57 people across 15 markets, supporting organisations working on some of the most urgent questions of our time.

 

I am someone who has always thrown myself fully into the work.

 

Then, in 2022, I had a heart attack.

 

That moment changed me.

 

It stripped away the illusion that there would always be more time.

 

It made clear that the work before us cannot only be what is comfortable, fundable or easy to explain.

 

It has to be the work that fills the gap between the world we have inherited and the future we say we believe in.

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That is why I went on to found the Multicultural Leadership Initiative, to grow the participation and power of culturally and linguistically diverse communities in climate leadership.

 

It is why I helped seed Asians for Climate Solutions, to engage Asian community and business leaders in the responsibility and opportunity of accelerating the climate transition.

And it is why I co-founded the Our Common Future alliance, to help build healthier democracies and stronger climate solutions across cultural lines.

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Over the years, my work has been recognised in ways I remain deeply grateful for. I have been named on the Most Influential Asian-Australians list, recognised as Asia Pacific CEO of the Year in Environmental Sustainability, and received the Vice-Chancellor’s Human Rights Award from the University of Technology Sydney.

 

But recognition has never been the reason for the work.

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The deeper question has always been:

 

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