Keshini Navaratnam

Keshini Navaratnam is a familiar face to many people around the globe as a respected international news journalist and foreign affairs specialist for the BBC for 15 years.

She has chaired, moderated and spoken at a range of top international conferences for the UN, Commonwealth, EU and various global industries ranging from diamonds, oil and gas to international travel.

Ms Navaratnam has specialised in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the Asia- Pacific region. She has advised numerous international politicians, ambassadors, international organisations and senior military figures. She provides foreign affairs and international media advice, leadership and communications programmes for leading political and business figures and those operating internationally. She counsels on image and reputation.

Keshini has covered major news events and conflicts these past few years, ranging from the Gulf War to Chechnya, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, natural disasters including the tsunami, and terrorist attacks including the Bali bombings and 9/11.

Keshini was series producer of the BBC’s ‘The World That Came in from the Cold’, an internationally acclaimed flagship ten-part series on the Cold War, involving statesmen from the East and West. For the series, Keshini interviewed major players from both sides of the Iron Curtain including Gorbachev, with whom she has established a life-long friendship.

She has a masters degree in Modern and Medieval Languages (Russian, Czech and Slovak) from Cambridge University, where she was a Scholar.