In an era marked by escalating climate disruption, humanitarian crises, and deepening inequality, the call for bold, values-driven leadership has never been more urgent. At the transformational frontline of this global response stands Rathana Chea. A former refugee turned internationally recognised environmental and human rights leader, whose life’s work now invites philanthropic partners to step forward and fuel the systemic change our world demands.
As Founder of social impact strategy group rathana.org and climate leadership innovator, the Multicultural Leadership Initiative, Chea has spent over two decades leading transformative campaigns across 6 continents. From the floodings in Southeast Asia to scorhicng heatwaves of Europe and to the wildfires of Australia and the Americas, Chea has witnessed first hand the devastating toll climate instability. Having campaigned at a community level, advocated at a national level and negotiated at international diplomatic levels; in 2024, he was named one of the Most Impactful Asian-Australians, a recognition of both his moral clarity and his strategic influence in shaping more just and sustainable systems.
Chea’s leadership is deeply personal. Having endured human rights abuses as a refugee himself, his advocacy is grounded in lived experience and unwavering empathy. He brings rare credibility to spaces that too often exclude those very voices from the frontlines which leaders often claim to represent, whether that’s Indigenous communities, people of colour, or climate-vulnerable nations.
His legacy of impact includes leading in senior global roles at Greenpeace, where he co-authored the organisation’s 10-year Global Strategy, led critical work in post-Fukushima Japan and fought to save the Indonesia rainforests. He also served in Amnesty International, championing political prisoners and civil liberties throughout Asia, inlduing the successful release of high profile political prisoners. From securing marriage equality to defending refugees’ rights, Chea’s work spans causes but always centers the dignity and well-being of everyday people.
Yet what makes Chea’s leadership uniquely catalytic compared to other CEOs of his generation in the change-making sector is his ability to bridge grassroots organising and high-level diplomacy. He’s both relatable and someone you naturally look up to. Listen to anyone of his interviews and you cant help but want to be a better person aftwards. He’s helped build movements, institutions and some of today’s leading change-makers. Through rathana.org, his name sake agency, he leads a global team of 47 multidisciplinary consultants across 15 countries, partnering with organisations United Nations agencies, civil cociety organisations and corproates who seek equitable ecological and social systems change.
Perhaps most urgent, and inspiring, is Chea’s more recent work co-founding the Multicultural Leadership Initiative in 2022. MLI is a bold undertaking in rebalancing power: a global network dedicated to centering race and culture in the race to solve climate change. In amplifying leadership from historically marginalized communities, MLI not only diversifies the climate movement it transforms it from within. In doing so, building a climate safe future that is cross-partisan, cross-cultural, interfaith and reflects the true diversity of humanity.
In a sector where inclusion is too often symbolic, MLI is delivering the structural interventions that real equity requires. With Chea at the helm, MLI is convening, training, and resourcing climate leaders from communities that are both disproportionately impacted by climate breakdown and most equipped to lead the solutions.
Being a Gen Xer, Chea is very aware that many of his CEO or Senior Management peers who operate in for-profit spaces are now in a position to give back. He calls on philanthropy from traditional generational wealth as well as this new emergent self-made group to combine their efforts to curb the climate turbulence our planet is experiencing. “There is power in organised people, the way our world moves at the pulse rate of relationships. There is power in organised ideas, the way we surface innovative solutions through process design. But neither of these two are powerful enough to change the world without organised capital,” Chea laments often when considering the insurmountable odds in solving the climate crisis. But Chea’s track record speaks for itself. His vision of a world led by those most affected is a world that is led by all of us. Spend enough time with him and you’ll end up believing that we all have the leadership capacity to change the course of history, we just have to be willing to collaborate.
“An activist is a change-maker as much as a philanthropist is. We all need to contribute our own capacities. If we are all measured by the same metrics, we will never build our path towards the future. To build a house you need an architect, a builder, a plumber, an electrician and so on. Each playing their role at the right time, in the right place, with the right tools. This is the power difference and diversity working together,” Chea recently said in a keynote address to cross-partisan community leaders.
In a time of polarisation, Chea is building bridges. In a time of fragmentation, he is building infrastructure. The moment is urgent. The leadership is here. And in his words, “The invitation is open.”
For more information about Rathana Chea and his work, visit rathana.org, Multicultural Leadership Initiative, and Rathana Chea’s Personal Website.
