Ruwan de Mel

Principal Consultant

Ruwan has over 15 years’ experience in international development following private sector roles in investment banking, corporate advisory, strategy, audit and finance.

A Sri Lankan, Ruwan is a Chartered Accountant of both England & Wales, and Australia. He trained and worked with Deloitte in London before moving to Sydney, working in audit and then corporate advice with the Dutch bank ABN AMRO. Between 2003 and 2014 he was based in Geneva and worked at the then newly established Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Initially responsible for financial oversight of grants, his roles evolved and grew with the organisation itself with a focus on strategy and policy development, and equitable access to funding. Before returning to Australia Ruwan was for several years the Global Fund’s Director of Strategy. Since 2014, Ruwan has worked on various consulting assignments, in the health, food and nutrition, education and WASH sectors focused on strategy development, finance, resource mobilization and evaluation. He is also a Board member of the Fred Hollows Foundation, a leading Australia based funder of international eye-health programmes.

BSC Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Kings College, University of London (1975-1978)
Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, UK (1978-1982)
Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, Australia (1987)