Sacha Deshmukh

Sacha Shisheer Bhaskar (“Sacha”) Deshmukh (born 23 July 1974) is the Chief Executive of Amnesty international UK. Until October 2020 he was Chief Executive of Unicef UK . Prior to that Sacha was Chief Executive of Smart Energy GB , Chair of War Child UK, and Vice Chair of Citizens Advice England & Wales. 
Sacha is the main spokesperson for Amnesty International UK and makes regular media appearances, including doing broadcast interviews.
==Early life and education==
Deshmukh was born in London; his mother was born in Mumbai (in India) and his father born in Karachi (now in Pakistan) and both had migrated to the United Kingdom in the 1960s. His father’s family moved from Karachi to Mumbai in early 1948, as part of the mass migration after the partition of India in summer 1947. 
Deshmukh was first educated at Perivale Primary School, and later at Orley farm School at St Paul’s School in London. He attended Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University in 1993. In 1994/5 he received a Foundation scholarship and a Boutwood scholarship . He received his BA in Social & Political Sciences in 1996 and an M.Phil in International Relations in 1997. In 2007 he graduated from the University of Law (then the College of Law of England & Wales) with a Graduate Diploma in Law.
==Career==
Deshmukh started his career in 1997 as part of the founding team in communications agency A.S. Biss & Co. In 2001 he moved to Stonewall where as Director of Parliamentary Affairs he led successful campaigns to equalise adoption laws, reform historic sexual offences laws, abolish Section 28 (which had banned the discussion of sexuality in schools) and started the debate that led to the introduction of civil partnerships and equal marriage laws in the UK Summerskill, Ben, and Sacha Deshmukh. Civil Partnership: Legal Recognition for Same-sex Couples. Stonewall, 2003.. In 2003 he returned to A.S. Biss & Co as Managing Director, to lead its trade sale to advertising company W.C.R.S Limited in 2005, forming the Engine Group. He led the corporate communications agencies in the Engine Group for seven years until 2012. 
 
In 2013, Deshmukh became Executive Director (Strategy) of the United Kingdom Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman. In late 2013, he became founding Chief Executive of the campaign supporting the rollout of smart meters across Great Britain, Smart Energy GB. In 2020, he became Chief Executive of Unicef UK and in May 2021, Chief Executive of Amnesty International UK. 
 
From 2010 to 2015 Deshmukh was a board trustee and Vice chair of Citizens Advice England & Wales. From 2014 to 2020, he was Chair of Trustees of War Child UK. Since 2016, he has been a non-executive Director of the Fundraising Regulator, the regulator of charity marketing and marketing activity in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 
==Personal Life==
Sacha is a human rights activist, a keen walker and an avid movie fan. As part of the LGBTQ+ community and being from a minoritised ethnic family, Sacha’s identity is very much bound up with his human rights activism. 
 
Deshmukh lives in north London. 
Category:1974 births
Category:People from London
Category:Alumni of The University of Law
Category:Chief executive officers