Marcis Skadmanis
Marcis Liors Skadmanis (LL.M., LL.B., Honoris Causa, FRSA) is a Latvian-British international lawyer and organizational founder specializing in high-level strategic partnerships. As the Founder of World NGO Day, he currently serves as the Chair and Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Global Council, where he leverages his legal expertise to broker multi-year alliances and drive global ecosystem strategy.
He is the founder of World NGO Day (27 February) – an international observance established in 2014 and now marked in over 145 countries across six continents. The day has been officially recognized and engaged by leading international institutions, including the European Union, UNESCO, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Council of Europe, honoring over 10 million NGOs and 1 billion volunteers worldwide.
With more than 15 years of international experience, Skadmanis currently serves as Head of the Global Council for World NGO Day, leading global partnerships and strategic development.
He previously co-founded the Latvian-British Chamber of Commerce, where he served as Executive Director and Chairman. In this role, he advanced cross-border trade and institutional collaboration, earning direct praise from the UK Prime Minister’s Investment Envoy. He also held a Non-Executive Director role focused on regional partnerships at SilverNet Financial Systems Ltd. (acquired by Malam Team in 2020).
Skadmanis has acted as an international consultant to the INGO Center of Taichung City Government and was a signatory of the Taichung GNP Declaration at the invitation of the Taichung City Council in 2018, Taiwan.
He holds an LL.M. and LL.B. from Turība University, which also awarded him an Honorary Degree (Honoris Causa) in recognition of his international contributions. Additionally, he earned a certificate in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).