Suresh Ariaratnam
Board Member
Biography
Suresh Ariaratnam has worked in the creative industries for 25 years, formerly as a literary and talent agent and currently as an artist advisor. As a non-executive director at NHS Dorset HealthCare he is especially interested in the broader socioeconomic determinants of health and how they shape life chances, as well as a holistic understanding of wellbeing which champions the interdependency between personal, societal, and planetary health. Suresh also serves as co-chair of Literature Works and a trustee of Trussell.
Suresh is a member of the Office for Students’ Public Affairs Committee, the British Library Advisory Council, and a board advisor to the 87 Press. Through the University of Bath’s Engineer Your Fit and Gold Scholarship Programmes, he mentors students whose participation in entrepreneurial and academic activities may be limited by barriers related to socioeconomic background, ethnicity, or gender. In 2022, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset in 2024, supporting community, inclusion, and wellbeing across the county.
