Top entrepreneur Sebastian Karunarakan to lead Rotary in Sri Lanka

Leading business personality Sebastian Karunakaran has been appointed the new Rotary District Governor for Sri Lanka and Maldives for the year 2019/2020.

Sebastian Karunakaran – the Rotary District Governor for Sri Lanka and Maldives for the year 2019/2020

Rotary, which is the only service organisation with a seat in the UN General Assembly, has 34,282 member clubs and 1.2 million individuals worldwide. In Sri Lanka, Rotary has 73 clubs and 1,900 members. 

Rotary is known for their contribution towards eradicating polio worldwide, with the deadly virus today endemic only in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Rotary currently dedicates itself to six focus areas – disease prevention and treatment, economic and community development, peace and conflict resolution, basic education and literacy, maternal and child health, and water and sanitation.

The newly appointed Governor Karunakaran is the Founder and Chairman of the Pan Audio Group and Chairman of Zion Corporation Singapore.

A product of St. Joseph’s College Colombo, Karunakaran has had an illustrious career. Holding a BSc in Chemistry and an MBA in Business and Marketing, he became a successful entrepreneur, launching Pan Audio Private Limited in 1982.

A reputed name in business for over three decades, Pan Audio is a market leader for IT related peripherals, data storage, imaging, security solutions and presentation systems. It is today the local representative and sole distributor for more than 10 reputed global technology brands. 

Karunakaran, who joined Rotary in 1996, has been an active member over the years, holding several key positions at both Board and District level. Appointed the Club President in 2012/2013, he secured the Most Outstanding President Award as well as the Award for the Best Community Service Project. 

Karunakaran has since received a host of accolades for his dedication and achievements in Rotary. These include awards for the Best District Secretary, Outstanding Vocational Service Director and Outstanding Rotarian of the Year on over five successive occasions. He has also served as an Assistant Governor, receiving the award for Best Assistant Governor in 2016. 

Among the successful community service projects spearheaded by Karunakaran is the setting up of the Kidney Dialysis Centre at Padaviya in the North Central Province, where the highest kidney failure has been reported. The cost of the project was around Rs. 27 million.

He was also the driving force behind the CHART Foundation, which stands for Catalyst to Harness and Advance Rural Talent. Under this initiative, English and IT have been taught to rural children and over 500 laptops donated to rural schools in several remote regions. Additionally, he initiated a project to build a 1,000 sq. ft. library and computer lab at a small rural village school in Kurunegela called the Kanishta Vidyalaya in Ketawala. 

Karunakaran has also been instrumental in facilitating heart surgeries for over 50 children on the national waiting list by having these performed privately in Sri Lanka and India. He is working towards doubling that number this year during his tenure as District Governor. 

He is the Brand Ambassador for the project Dream Cricket, where differently abled children are given the opportunity to enhance their talents in sport. Dream Cricket is organised in over five locations across Sri Lanka each year.

Outlining the plans for his year as Governor, Karunakaran said that his key priorities would include launching a Skin Bank to assist burns patients and a Human Milk Bank to save premature babies in intensive care. He will spearhead a project to provide curative operations for over 3,000 children born with congenital heart diseases in both local and overseas hospitals as well as provide plastic surgery for children born with cleft lip/palate.

Other projects in the pipeline include the expansion of the Dialysis Centre in North Colombo Hospital, where many are denied treatment due to the lack of machines and other resources. He will also work in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Medical Association in the prevention of non- communicable diseases (NCDs) such as blood pressure, diabetes and cancer as well as alcohol abuse, so that Sri Lanka can achieve the WHO target of reducing NCD deaths by 10% in 2030.