Top female leaders to share key ideas at Interbrand-Daily FT International Women’s Day celebrations 

Interbrand in association with the Daily FT celebrates International Women’s Day (IWD) 2022, the theme being – “#BreaktheBias: Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow; Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”, recognising the contribution of women and girls around the world, who are leading the charge on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and response, to build a more sustainable future for all.

The celebration will be held at a gala event on 21 March at the Oak Room of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, commencing 6 p.m. and this year the keynote address will be one with a difference, in that 11 women from different professions will speak of their ideas in breaking the bias and working towards achieving sustainability.  

Interbrand is the world’s leading brand consultancy, specialising in brands and branding management, with 24 offices in 17 countries. The New York-based consultancy publishes the Best Global Brands report on an annual basis which identifies the world’s 100 most valuable brands.

The strategic partner for this gala event will be Mastercard, while corporate sponsors are SLT-Mobitel, NDB Bank, Triumph Sloggi, and Supreme Flora, with the host hotel once again being the Cinnamon Grand. 

Luxury door gifts are being provided by Sothys and Triumph Sloggi, while Kavita Thulasidas will be giving a designer sari and Soraya Jewellery a pair of earrings for the ticket draw.

The stellar line-up of women leaders who will be addressing the audience on the theme, “#BreaktheBias: Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” include,

HEINEKEN Lanka Managing Director Maud Meijboom-van Wel, Solicitor Adrika Sri Bawan,  Saraii Village and Saaraketha Founder Charitha Abeyratne Hettiarachchi,  Ceylon Biscuits Ltd. Group MD Shea Wickremesinghe, Indira Cancer Trust Founder Dr. Lanka Dissanayake, Development Consultant Multi-Sector Development Solutions Ltd Director /Activist/Former Chief Commissioner Girl Guides Sri Lanka 

Visakha Tillekeratne, Equal Ground Founder and Executive Director Rosanna Flamer Caldera,  Uva Wellassa- Monaragala Women’s Organisation President K.C. Somalatha, SLID Women Directors Forum Deputy Chair Nadija Tambiah,  MAS Intimates Manager Environmental Sustainability Dr. Kshanika Goonesekera and WNPS Youth Wing Chairperson Saineb Akbarally. 

The speeches will be followed by an interactive Q and A moderated by the Editor of the Daily FT Nisthar Cassim.

HEINEKEN Lanka Managing Director Maud Meijboom-van Wel has wide exposure in both sales and marketing across multiple markets in Europe and the Asia Pacific. She arrived in Sri Lanka from Singapore, where she last served as Heineken Brand Director Asia Pacific and Director Global Communication. 

Covering Brand Development in 23 Asia Pacific markets such as China, Vietnam, Korea, Australia, India, and Singapore, she has also held the position of Thai Asia Pacific Breweries Board Member. 

In 2013, Maud became a DB Breweries Management Team member in New Zealand. 

As the Marketing Director, she led an extensive portfolio of cider, craft, and larger brands with a focus on growth in premium, innovation, and breakthrough communication.

 In April 2016, Maud was appointed as GAB Marketing Director, later HEINEKEN Malaysia Berhad, developing an innovative portfolio of global, local, and license brands, as well as accelerating cider locally in Malaysia.

Adrika Sri Bawan is a lawyer who currently works at one of the big four banks in Australia, Australia, and New Zealand Bank (ANZ). Born in Colombo and given up for adoption as a new-born to Mother Teresa’s Home, she was adopted at three months and came to Australia at the age of two, after an intense two-year legal battle with Australian Immigration. Shortly after her arrival she was diagnosed with a bilateral moderate to severe hearing loss and is now profoundly deaf but can hear with cochlear implants. 

Saraii Village and Saaraketha Founder Charitha Abeyratne Hettiarachchi set up Saraii Village in 2012 as a pilot project and developed it into a successful model that is easily replicable. 

As a female-owned venture, Saraii has been accredited by the UNDP as a sustainable tourism operation and she is supported by the International Trade Centre of Geneva by enabling greater access to international markets. 

She’s a Fulbright scholar and has an MBA in Global Social Sustainable Enterprise. She was selected as a Winning Woman of Asia Pacific 2020 by E & Y Global, Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2015, and Zonta Woman Achiever 2017, with Saraii being listed as One of the Top Ten Most Extraordinary Tree Top Hotels in the World by Trip Advisor both in 2014 as well as 2015, and the recipient of the World Luxury Hotel Award in 2016

Zaineb Akbarally is an environmental scientist, conservationist, and educator. She started her career working with Save the Elephants on the human-elephant coexistence initiative “The Elephants and Bees project” in Kenya and Sri Lanka. She has since worked across Sri Lanka on multiple biodiversity conservation-related research-oriented projects. 

She has an MSc in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and was a post-graduate fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, UK, in 2015/16. 

Zaineb is the Chairperson of the Youth Wing of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS), which works on environmental educational initiatives that engage and inspire Sri Lankan youth on biodiversity and conservation issues. She is also a member of the General Committee of the WNPS.

CBL Group Managing Director Shea Wickramasingha has manufacturing operations in confectionery, cereals, Soya, coconuts, and fruits and has strong market leadership in Sri Lanka in several categories with its brands such as Munchee, Ritzbury, Revello, Lanka Soy Samaposha, and Sera. 

The group has two manufacturing plants in Bangladesh and Ghana and exports its range of products to over 55 countries. CBL Group is also the Sri Lankan Partner for SPAR International and operates supermarkets in Sri Lanka under license. 

Shea joined Ceylon Biscuits Ltd. in 1991 as a Food Technologist and worked in various capacities in the company and group and joined the Board in 1996. She has an interest in the functional and healing properties of Food.

Dr. Lanka Jayasuriya Dissanayake, a medical graduate who obtained her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) from Leeds University, UK followed by an MBA in Healthcare Sciences from Manipal University, India, currently serves as the Chairperson/Trustee of the Indira Cancer Trust, which is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) supporting patients with cancer and their families with over 20 projects. 

Additionally, she also works as a director at Surya Foundation, Gamini Dissanayake Foundation, and NCD Alliance Lanka. She has a special interest in patients’ rights and responsibilities and is involved at the national level to initiate this process. She has also set up Sri Lanka’s first paediatric palliative care centre in Sri Lanka, Suwa Arana.

Visakha Tillekeratne has over 30 years of experience working in the government, private sector, NGOs, and the United Nations. Her expertise is in nutrition, sustainable diets, and community development with gender as a cross-cutting theme in all these areas of expertise. 

Well-versed in policy development and analysis, research, donor relations, partnership building, behaviour change communication, capacity building, and managing programs from design to post-evaluation, she has been part of many regional development teams working throughout Asia. 

She is also the former Chief Commissioner of the Girl Guides of Sri Lanka. She has an MSc in Food Technology in Developing Countries with a concentration on Pure and Applied Nutrition, Food Science, Food Policy and the Social Sciences, Statistics. She is also a Berridge Bursary Trust Scholar of King’s College London, this scholarship is awarded to outstanding female students from the developing world.

Equal Ground Founder and Executive Director (2004-to present) Rosanna Flame Caldera runs one of the only diverse LGBTIQ advocacy organisations, pursuing LGBTIQ rights as part of the larger Human Rights framework in Sri Lanka. 

Rosanna served two terms as co-secretary general of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Association (ILGA) and is the co-founder and former chair of the Commonwealth Equality Network, a broad network of LGBTIQ organisations within the Commonwealth. She was also the co-founder of the Women’s Support Group in 1999.

K.P. Somalatha is a rural development activist who resides in Wellawaya in the Monaragala district. She is the President of the Uva Wellassa Women’s Organisation based in Wellawaya, Moneragala. She facilitates the development of economic, social, cultural, and political rights of the women of Uva. 

Women’s lives have been revolutionised in the area of entrepreneurship development in the sector of agro products. This is supported by robust savings and credit systems being put in place. The Women members are mainly involved in agriculture and food processing, but other sectors are also pursued. 

She has received training in the fields of Panchayat systems, India, Participatory Development methods at the University of Colombo, organic agriculture in the Orissa province, India, and Human Rights protection, especially women’s rights, in Nepal.

Nadija Tambiah is a law graduate from the University of Manchester, a Barrister at Law (Middle Temple), UK, and an Attorney at Law in Sri Lanka. She heads the Legal and Company Secretarial functions of the John Keells Group. She also heads the John Keells Foundation Corporate Social Responsibility arm of John Keells Holdings PLC and is part of the Diversity and Inclusion Initiative of the group. 

She is a Trustee of the George Keyt Foundation, Geoffrey Bawa Trust, Lunuganga Trust, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Colombo Museum of Modern Art.  She also sits on the Council of the Sri Lankan Institute of Directors and is Vice-Chair of the Women Directors Forum.  

She is a founder member of the Sri Lanka chapter of the US-based global entity, Women Corporate Directors Foundation.

Dr.Kshanika Goonesekera is a Molecular Biologist by training. A multifaceted individual who is at present MAS Intimates Pvt Ltd Manager of Environmental Sustainability team, her career at MAS started at MAS Fabric Park (MFP) in Thulhiriya as a Chemical Analyst in the Hydro and Environment department. 

Fresh out of university and eager to prove herself, her thirst for knowledge soon led her to complete an MSc in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology from the University of Westminster, UK. Before re-joining MAS, Kshanika embraced the opportunity to give back to The Open University of Sri Lanka as a lecturer in the Health Faculty, followed by a year in the bowels of Sinharaja working for an NGO trying to convince smallholder tea farmers to take up organic farming and conserve our national treasure.

The welcome address at the event will be delivered by Head of Interbrand India Ashish Mishra, and evening proceedings include a ‘sustainable’ fashion show.  

Luxury door gifts, a cocktail hour, six-course sit-down dinner, entertainment provided by Soul Sounds, Ramya de Livera Perera, Soundarie David, and Naomi Wijemanne with Blessie Keegal anchoring the event, the Interbrand / Daily FT, International Women’s Day event, supported by Mastercard as Strategic Partner, SLT Mobitel, NDB Bank, Supreme Flora, Triumph, and the best address in town, Grand will undoubtedly be the IWD event of the year.

Tickets are on sale at the Cinnamon Grand Lobby, hotline 0763921340 and 0719917711.