Harvard Club of Sri Lanka elects first Executive Board for 2022/2024

The first Annual General Meeting of the Harvard Club of Sri Lanka was held virtually, electing the first President and Board of Directors for next three years 2022/2024. 

Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) of Harvard University had approved the establishment of Harvard Club of Sri Lanka in 2021 – the official alumni organisation and the representative group for all Harvard University alumni as well as faculty, fellows, researchers, and all other affiliates of Harvard University residing in Sri Lanka. 

After experiencing the joys of studying in Cambridge at the prestigious Harvard University, those amazing conversations with classmates and professors, walking along the Charles, around Harvard Yard and Harvard Square, the alumni are now back in Sri Lanka. Members of the club can continue to experience those conversations and memories with like-minded Harvard alumni living in Sri Lanka. The Harvard Club of Sri Lanka is focused on making a difference as a Harvard community for our members, for Sri Lanka, and for Harvard. 

Academics Group Chairman and CEO Kandeban Balendran was elected as the President and Chair of the Board of Directors along with the first Executive Board and Non-Executive members. The Harvard Club of Sri Lanka Board of Directors consists of Vice President Aruni Goonetilleke, Secretary Sheran Fernando, Treasurer Niral Kadawatharatchie, Director Hiran Embuldeniya, Director Asanka De Mel, Director Suranga Herath, and Non-Executive Members Nadira Karunaweera and Sarani Jayawardena.  

Addressing the meeting, Balendran said: “With the support of the HAA Office in Cambridge, and a fantastic core-team from our community, we established the ‘Harvard Club’ in Sri Lanka to become the 119th official Harvard Club in the world. For the past two years, we have hosted six successful events, made new connections, helped each other to build our community and initiated #FightCovidSaveLives project to help hospitals in rural villages during the pandemic.”

“I am humbled to be elected as the Founder President and the Chair of the Board of Directors with the responsibility of leading the community and I am excited about our journey together as leaders who make a difference in the world. I am also grateful to our amazing core-team, now the Board of Directors, for all their efforts and contributions. You are a gift to Harvard,” he said.

“Especially in turbulent moments like these, I believe it’s essential that all alumni feel included and welcome in the Harvard community. Uniting people to strengthen the alumni community in this time of crisis and historic change is our collective responsibility. The relationships we make across the Harvard Club of Sri Lanka as we connect across our diverse experiences are phenomenal. 

“The alumni community is here to support you. If you need help, I guarantee your fellow alumni will be there. I’ve had the privilege of meeting incredible people who are passionate about Harvard. I’m so grateful for their perspectives as we seek out new opportunities to build and support inclusive communities,” Balendran said.

“Our vision for the year ahead is an extension of our commitment to “One Harvard,” bringing alumni from all of Harvard’s Schools together to play an even more catalysing role in shaping a better world, as well as to connect, support, and learn from one another across perspectives. This is needed more today than at any other point in our lifetimes. 

The Harvard Club of Sri Lanka is focused on making a difference as a Harvard community for our members, for Sri Lanka, and for Harvard. The Harvard alumni community can give you so much, and not just meaningful intergenerational, global friendships, but also a path to having impact together in a way that is special to Harvard. The values of inclusion, diversity, and dismantling boundaries stretch further back,” he said.

“We will strive together to promote and strengthen the Harvard Club of Sri Lanka through meaningful programs. The Harvard community in our country is made up of over 120 alumni, a diversified group from various Harvard Schools and professions, leading across sectors to take Sri Lanka forward. The establishment of the Harvard Club of Sri Lanka will now create more opportunities for our community to connect with each other, other regions, and the University to learn and share ideas to create more impact. 

“It is our responsibility to help our communities, organisations, and the country to move forward especially in this difficult time. I request you to be part of this journey and become a member of the Harvard Club of Sri Lanka. Let us connect, learn, share, and create more impact together as “One Harvard,” Balendran added.

Those who wish to be added to the Harvard Club of Sri Lanka could contact [email protected].

Executive Board - 2022/2024

nPresident and Board of Directors Chair Kandeban Balendran

Featured by Harvard Business School as “DREAMER” among young global change makers – renowned for his integrity and leadership, Kandeban Balendran is a business leader, entrepreneur, educator and one of the most celebrated media personalities of Sri Lanka. Over the past two decades, Balendran has been a pioneer in the world of media, marketing, and education. 

He had lived and studied in Italy, United States, Australia, and India throughout his career before launching Academics Group in 2019. Academics Group is a cross-sector education think-tank which also owns Miami Ad School, the world’s most awarded creative school franchise for Sri Lanka and Maldives and Ivy Future Leader Academy. Balendran sits on several advisory and private company boards. 

nVice President Aruni Goonetilleke

Aruni Goonetilleke is a financial services expert with over 25 years of experience in regional financial markets, currently the Hatton National Bank Chairperson. She has extensive experience in enterprise risk management, credit, audit, and business origination and has held leadership positions in local and international banks. 

Her last role was Head of Corporate Banking at People’s Bank. Immediately prior to that, she held several leadership and transformational roles at Standard Chartered Bank Singapore and Sri Lanka. She is a Non-Executive Director of several listed companies and financial institutions in Sri Lanka.

nSecretary Sheran Fernando

Sheran Fernando is a Mobility Specialist with multi-faceted industry experience including 20 years with Jaguar Land Rover as dealer principal in Sri Lanka. He has worked with the Government, NGO’s, PLC’s and as an entrepreneur. Apart from the Automotive Industry, Sheran has experience in Plantation, Agriculture, Finance, Manufacturing and Engineering. He has successfully restructured a wide range of corporate entities. Sheran Fernando currently works as a Mobility Consultant, and an Independent Director.

nTreasurer Niral Kadawatharatchie

Logistics and Supply Chain Management is his passion. People management and entrepreneurship are a set of special skills that Niral have developed over the years and continue to foster. His commitment to develop and maintain strong business relationships coupled with exemplary business ethics have been the key to my success. In facing challenges of traditional air and sea freight, he embarked on new services such as Supply Chain Consultancy and high-end domestic logistics solutions for multinational companies.

nEnglish Tea Shop CEO Suranga Herath

Suranga Herath is CEO of English Tea Shop; a unique organic tea business, based out of a small organic farming platform. Suranga is a pioneer of sustainability best practices and has developed a wide range of initiatives designed to improve the livelihoods of communities in their value chain. He is an advocate of making English Tea Shop a “Business of Business People” through their employee empowerment program, namely the “Big-Game”.

nDirector Asanka de Mel

Asanka de Mel is a graduate from Harvard Kennedy School of Government with MPA. He’s the founder of LOVI Ceylon, a clothing brand committed to reimaging Sri Lankan identity clothing for a new generation. Prior to that Asanka spent 20+ years in the US software industry in Silicon Valley and NYC. He brings startups, technology, and public policy expertise to the club.

nDirector Hiran Embuldeniya

Hiran has been working on the Sri Lankan capital markets over the past 10 years. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Ironwood Capital Partners, an impact-oriented investment firm in Sri Lanka. Hiran sits on several advisory boards including the South Asia Alumni Advisory Board of the Harvard Business School, the Economic Policy Committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, and several private company Boards. 

Prior to moving to Sri Lanka, Hiran worked within the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs and within the Financial Institutions Practice at McKinsey and Company over a period of 10 years.

nNon-Executive Member Nadira Karunaweera

Nadira is Professor and Chair, Head of Department, Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Nadira is a medical graduate who started research in the field of malaria in 1989 when she joined University of Colombo as a lecturer. The title of her PhD thesis was ‘clinical disease and immunity in Plasmodium vivax malaria’.

Nadira was a Fellow, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University in 2005/2006 during which time she studied genetic diversity of P.vivax parasites in the laboratory of Dyann Wirth at the School of Public Health, Harvard University where she continues to hold the position of visiting scientist.

nNon- Executive Member Sarani Jayawardena

Sarani is a policy and program strategist with experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. She studied Government at Harvard College and has a MSc in Evidence-based Policy and Program Evaluation from the University of Oxford. Sarani works with the MAS Foundation for Change to build partnerships with innovators, implementers, and donors tackling ocean pollution, biodiversity loss, and other social and environmental challenges.