VISAGAN NAIDOO IS COL’S VICE PRESIDENT

Courtesy of COL, www.col.org Professor Asha Kanwar, President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), announced the appointment of Mr. Visagan (Vis) Naidoo as COL's Vice President. Mr. Naidoo, Citizenship Lead at Microsoft South Africa joins COL on 1 October 2012. Mr. Naidoo has been involved in the development of educational technology policy options both in South Africa and internationally, including at COL in the past 20 years.

"COL will be privileged to have Vis Naidoo in Vancouver as Vice-President", said Professor Kanwar, "he has a vast range of experience in universities, civil society, government, international development and the private sector, at senior levels, which makes him an excellent choice for the post. His experience and background will be an important asset to COL as it implements its new Three-Year Plan for the period 2012-2015." A national of South Africa, Mr. Naidoo was Education Specialist for Educational Technology Policy and Planning at COL from 2000 to 2005. He moved back to South Africa to head Mindset Network, a non-profit organisation that creates sources and distributes educational content on a mass scale across Southern Africa using satellite and broadcast technology. Most recently, at Microsoft South Africa, he led the company's social responsibility and employee volunteer programme, focusing on supporting youth in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho. Prior to joining COL in 2000, Mr. Naidoo was the Director of the Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Education, Department of Education, South Africa. During his five years as Director, he was instrumental in shaping policy environment in the area of distance education and technology-enhanced learning. COL conducted an extensive international search to select a successor to Professor Kanwar as Vice President when she was named President of COL earlier this year. The Commonwealth of Learning is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. COL is assisting developing nations improve access to quality education and training. The Commonwealth is comprised of 53 countries -- most of which are developing nations that make one-quarter of the world's population. For more information, please visit the following web sites. www.col.org/newsreleases www.col.org/akanwar