Penny Abeywardena is the founder and chief executive officer of Soft Power Strategies, a fellow-in-residence at New York University’s McSilver Institute and a leadership strategies contributor at Forbes. She is a senior advisor to multiple global institutions, including The Elders and GWL Voices. She has held leadership roles in philanthropic, nonprofit, governmental and multilateral institutions for more than 20 years. Her contributions have been recognized and celebrated by the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and the French-American Foundation, among others. She was appointed to the rank of Knight in France’s National Order of Merit by President Macron for her global leadership on diplomacy, human rights and sustainability.
From 2014 to 2022, Abeywardena was the commissioner for international affairs for New York City, where she led the agency serving the world’s largest diplomatic corps. Prior to her role in government, from 2009 to 2014, Abeywardena was the director of the women’s program at the Clinton Global Initiative, where she advised philanthropists, multinational corporations, nongovernmental organizations and multilateral institutions to increase investments in gender-focused development initiatives.
Abeywardena is currently on the board of directors of FHI 360, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the United Nations Democracy Fund. She is a TED Ignite Fellow and serves on advisory councils for APCO Worldwide, the 92NY Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact, and Vote Run Lead. Abeywardena has recently served on the board of the United Nations Development Corporation (which oversees U.S.-based real estate), the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (which provides oversight of the United Nations Foundation), the International Peace Institute and the Aspen Institute’s Digital Equity Advisory Council. She was a co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities of Tomorrow.
Abeywardena has a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Southern California. She lives in New York City with her family.
