Neethan Shan currently works as the Executive Director of Council of Agencies Serving South Asians. Neethan Shan also represents a very diverse population in Markham as a Public School Trustee in York Region District School Board.

Neethan graduated from University of Toronto with Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Education. He is currently pursuing a M.A degree at OISE/UT in the field of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education.

Neethan Shan has been a community activist and advocate for children, youth and immigrants for over a decade in Scarborough. He has developed over thirty programs in many neighbourhoods in Scarborough. His initiative in youth development has resulted in starting and implementing after school programs in over twenty schools in Scarborough. Neethan has also initiated many neighbourhood initiatives using various principles of community development. See TOP 100 involvement for more details.

Neethan Shan began his work as a youth outreach worker in Malvern working at both Lester B. Pearson Collegiate Institute and Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School. Later at a very young age of 22, he took up a challenging Executive Director role at a social service agency, CanTYD. Later, he became a manager for youth programs in Malvern, where he developed and implemented over twenty programs in many schools. His work included overseeing programs in many schools and community centres including Malvern Community Centre, Dr. Marion Hilliard Junior High School, Grey Owl Public School, Mary Shadd Public School, Alexander Fleming Public School, Burrows Hall Public School and Tom Longboat Public School.

Neethan Shan was one of the initial members that assisted in the formation of the Malvern Community Coalition. In addition, Neethan was instrumental in the formation of Malvern Community Festival, Malvern Youth Cabinet, Malvern Law and Order Team and Malvern Youth Photo Club project. As an advocate for community use of public space, Neethan Shan advocated for public use of school space through Community Use of Schools Council.

Neethan’s other involvement in the social services sector includes his roles with Parent Action on Drugs, Council of Agencies Serving South Asians, Canadian Tamil Congress, Youth Gang Work Group (City of Toronto), Scarborough Youth Task Group, Tsunami Relief Coordinating Committee and many more. He also produces and hosts interactive talk shows on social issues in Canadian Multicultural Radio CMR FM 101.3 and TVi. He was also a Project Director, at Boreal Institute for Civil Society (an Institute affiliated with University of Toronto through Munk Centre for International Studies).

In addition to fluency in English, Neethan Shan is able to converse in many South Asian Languages including Tamil, Hindi and Urdu.

He received many awards including Race Relations Award from Urban Alliance for Race Relations and Vital People award from Toronto Community Foundation