High Commissioner of Sri Lanka

Profile of HE Nimal Senadheera, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to the UK

Nimal Senadheera, who assumed charge as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK, on 16^th June 2025, is a senior officer in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) with a career spanning nearly two and a half decades with wide experience in public policy and administration, diplomacy, and education.

Mr. Senadheera holds an MSc in Public Policy from the University of Strathclyde, UK, a Master’s in Public Administration from Flinders University, Australia, and a Master of Arts in Linguistics from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka reading English, Economics, and Sociology.

After joining the SLAS in 2000, he initially served as Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Local Government and subsequently in the Ministry of Health and Social Services in the Central Province of Sri Lanka until 2008. He also served as the Commissioner of Probation and Childcare Services in the same Province (2008-2010). During this period, he oversaw the designing, implementation and successful completion of many projects for the development of human resources and vital infrastructure in the respective sectors, working closely with key global development partners. Mr. Senadheera was keen on strengthening provincial administration as a devolved unit and significantly contributed to policy reforms in this regard.

He later served as Director of Administration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2010-2014) and Minister at Sri Lanka High Commission in Pretoria (2014-2018) where he was also the Acting High Commissioner. On his return to Sri Lanka in 2008. Mr. Senadheera joined the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA) as a Senior Consultant where he contributed to the design and delivery of educational programmes for civil servants for their continuous professional development.

In parallel with his administrative career, Mr. Senadheera has maintained a long-standing engagement with education as an external lecturer/a resource person in public sector education and training programmes at local, provincial, and national levels. Prior to joining the SLAS, Mr. Senadheera served as a teacher in the Department of Education (1987-1999).