Ratheesan Yoganathan (born 6 December 1975) is a British

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

who, with Rasiah Ranjith Leon and Baskaran Kandiah, is best known as the co-founder of Lebara Group. On 10 August 2012 he took on the role of ex-chairman of Lebara Group and returned as CEO in March 2014. He owns about one third of the company's stock. He read

aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

Kingston University Kingston University London is a Public university, public research university located within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, in South London, South West London, England. Its roots go back to the Kingston Technical Institute, founded ...

Career

Ratheesan Yoganathan worked at an ICS outlet selling call-time cards. Later he managed the pricing department and worked in sales and marketing departement. At ICS, he made friends with two other Tamil colleagues, Rasiah Ranjith Leon and Baskaran Kandiah, who eventually became his business partners.

Business

In 2001, Ratheesan Yoganathan, Rasiah Ranjith Leon and Baskaran Kandiah founded the Lebara Group. Yoganathan ran Lebara as the CEO till August 2012 when it hired David Moffatt who was appointed Chief Executive Officer, effective 10 August 2012. Thereafter Yoganathan became the Chairman of Lebara Group, before returning as CEO in early 2014.

Charity

Ratheesan Yoganathan along with co-founders Rasiah Ranjith Leon and Baskaran Kandiah started Lebara Foundation, a charitable venture in 2005. His next big ambition is to expand Lebara Foundation, which is already building a community with homes, a school and a clinic for local and displaced children in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, southern India. To fund it, he plans to donate half his wealth to the foundation.

Other interests

As a strong believer in supporting young entrepreneurial talent, Yoganathan officially launched "The Entrepreneurial Way" at

Cass Business School Bayes Business School, formerly known as Cass Business School, is the business school of City St George's, University of London, located in St Luke's, just to the north of the City of London. It was established in 1966. Bayes Business School ...

, London, in December, 2012. The Entrepreneurial Way offers students and recent graduates since 2005, the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges - including Ratheesan Yoganathan - for investment, funding and additional support, such as mentoring. The scheme offers potential entrepreneurs practical advice on how to develop their business ideas and make them work in the real world.

References

External links

at tamilculture.ca

at growthbusiness.co.uk

at Mobile Magazine

"Lebara Charity Foundation Website"

at londonlovesbusiness.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Yoganathan, Ratheesan British businesspeople Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan businesspeople 1975 births Alumni of Kingston University Living people Sri Lankan chief executives Sri Lankan chairpersons of corporations English people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent People associated with Bayes Business School