Mr Nithiyananthan Nesadurai, or Nithi, is the Director of Nesa Communications, a public relations consultancy. Nithi’s forte is in facilitating strategic communications between organisations and their key stakeholders.

In his other capacity as President of the Environmental Protection Society Malaysia (EPSM), Nithi has played a major role in championing the sustainability agenda in Malaysia. Under his leadership, EPSM introduced two well-established global sustainability processes in Malaysia. They are Local Agenda 21, the action blueprint for sustainable development for communities, in 1997, and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a framework for sustainability reporting in 2002. In 2007, Nithi was part of EPSM’s team which introduced the concept of Ecological Footprint Analysis, a tool for measuring sustainability. Nithi was also part of the core group within EPSM which organised a Roundtable in 2010 and 2011 to create an implementing framework to mainstream sustainability in Malaysia.

With regard to his work on sustainability and climate change, Nithi was appointed as a Consultant by the United Nations in 2010 to conduct the 10-year review of Malaysia’s performance on Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, entitled Ensure Environmental Sustainability. In the same year, Nithi also conducted a Master Class on Sustainable Development for senior managers of Shell. Nithi has been a regular speaker on this topic at forums organised by universities, private companies and schools. In 2007, he addressed the Commonwealth Finance Ministers on “Climate Change and Poverty Reduction” at their meeting in Guyana in South America.

Currently pursuing a doctorate in business administration, Nithi holds a Master of Arts in Communication Management from the University of South Australia, as well as a Postgraduate Certificate in Development Planning from University College, London.