Biography
Correspondent, strategist, director.
Satya Brata Das has spent half a century where public life meets private counsel. His stock in trade has been frank and fearless advice, offered to people who do not always want to hear it.
1975–2000
The correspondent
He joined Southam, later CanWest, in 1975 and that year became the first person of colour in the press gallery of the Alberta legislature. Over the next quarter-century he worked as a Canada-based foreign correspondent and national columnist, and from 1984 to 1996 sat on the editorial board of the Edmonton Journal.
The newspapers gave him an early and unsentimental education in how governments, markets and societies actually behave. His editorial writing won a citation of merit from the National Newspaper Awards in 1996.
2001–2021
The strategist
In 2001 he co-founded Cambridge Strategies Inc., an advisory firm working on strategy, policy, advocacy and diplomacy. He advised on more than 60 major provincial and federal files in Canada, and a handful of transnational ones, specialising in energy and the environment, international relations, cross-cultural negotiation and private diplomacy.
For Alberta he developed the concepts for Alberta Rapid Transit, a high-speed rail network between the province’s main cities, and Port Alberta, a network of logistics hubs offering one-stop service for exports, imports and value-added manufacturing. He advised the Premier’s Council on Alberta’s Economic Future on a “green future” for the province in 2008–09, and carried messages between Alberta’s Executive Council and Ottawa’s Privy Council Office when the two governments were at odds.
2021–
The director
In 2021 he stepped back from full-time executive work to concentrate on boards and advice. He chairs the board of baüne, a healthcare-technology company, and the IEEE working group writing P3469, a standard for tracking carbon emissions and environmental liabilities across supply chains. He is vice-chair of Green Powerhouse, a European green-finance consortium, and sits on the audit committee of the federal Department of Canadian Heritage.
Since 2023 he has been chairman and chief executive of JP Das Educational Consulting Corporation, the family enterprise founded by his late father, into which Cambridge Strategies has been merged. His latest book, The Manifesto of Hope, is published by Barlow Books in October 2026.
At a glance
Based in
Edmonton, Canada
Education
University of Cambridge, Nuffield Fellow in international trade and aid policy
University of Alberta: political science, economics, French, English
Languages
Native: English, French, Odia
Working: Hindi, Spanish
Also Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Italian, Bangla; reads Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Catalan
International
Nine engagements during the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2022 and 2023; World Bank and IMF meetings
Speaks in
Both of Canada’s official languages
Selected advisory work
Sixty files, three governments.
Government of Alberta
Northern development, immigration, the value-added economy, risk management, economic diversification, trade and international marketing, environmental stewardship, Indigenous policy and the social policy framework.
Government of Canada
Western disaffection, diversifying the western Canadian economy, innovation in agriculture and international trade policy.
Government of India
Advice to senior officials on protecting the integrity and sovereignty of the republic against overseas-based threats.
Honours
Recognition
- 2022 Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, for philanthropic service to Canada
- 2018 SAGE Award, for community service in social justice and peace
- 2005 Alberta Centennial Medal, for outstanding service to the province
- 2001 City of Edmonton Salute to Excellence
- 1999 Alberta Human Rights Award
- 1998 Media Human Rights Award, League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada
- 1996 Citation of Merit for editorial writing, National Newspaper Awards
- 1992 Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada Media Fellowship
- 1987 Nuffield Fellowship, University of Cambridge