Chevaan Daniel
Chevaan Devavarathan Daniel (born 11 May 1978) is a Sri Lankan former TV news anchor. He founded one of Sri Lanka's pioneering tech start-ups in the late 1990s. Today, he sits on the board of the Capital Maharaja Organization, one of Sri Lanka's largest diversified conglomerates. He is also known for his role in 'Gammadda', an award-winning rural development movement. He is a Fulbright Scholar, Eisenhower Global Fellow (EF Special Award- UTC Fellowship,’17). UN Official Charge de Cérémonie for OCHA- World Humanitarian Summit, Geneva, Head of Sri Lankan business delegation, The Bali Process Modern Day Slavery Summit in Perth Australia, Asia 21 Fellow and Advisory Board Member and a Global Advisory Board member at Brown University – Humanitarian Innovation Initiative. Daniel has been twice selected as Sri Lanka's 40 Under 40 outstanding Young Business Leaders and was the winner of the Junior Chamber 'Most outstanding young person of the year' award in 2008. He is the Group Director of the Capital Maharaja Organization. He is an A-PAD / IRIA-ASIA- Level II certified Swift Water Rescuer. In 2019, he was selected by Echelon Magazine to the New Establishment List of 100 Sri Lankan leaders set to lead transitional change in the nation. Early life and family Daniel was born to parents of mixed racial heritage. Having begun at several rural schools, he was admitted to S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, in 1988. Chevaan is married to Raaidah Daniel ńee Wahab and together, they have a son, Chelian. He joined Capital Maharaja as a part-time typist in the newsroom. Career He is Group Director at Capital Maharaja, which is Sri Lanka’s largest and most diversified privately held conglomerate. He was one of the youngest ever to be appointed to the Main Board of the 80 year old conglomerate. He has consistently attributed his success to his mentor, R. Rajamahendran, the chairman and managing director of the Maharaja Organization. Early on, Daniel launched eezee2.com, Sri Lanka's first classified advertisement website, in 1998. Daniel launched Sri Lanka's first ever SMS news alert service in 2000. He worked as a media coordinator to the Sri Lanka Cricket board for a period of two years, from 2000 to 2002, including a stint for the ICC. Daniel also spent a few years working for the Victoria's Secret brand at MAS Holdings, under the tutelage of Dian Gomes. However, he is perhaps best known as an English news anchor on MTV Sri Lanka, becoming a household name in his early twenties. Humanitarian work Chevaan spearheads Gammadda, a concept by R. Rajamahendran and perhaps Sri Lanka's largest rural development movement. Daniel represented the Capital Maharaja Organization, at the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) – Regional Consultation, which was held in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, in July 2015. Subsequently he was invited by the United Nations for Global Consultation on Humanitarian Efforts which was held in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2015. Daniel was the Master of Ceremony for the duration of the WHS Global Consultation. Daniel delivered an official statement