Dan Seevaratnam awarded Global ‘CEO of the Year’

Tuesday, 26 February 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Acknowledging exemplary accomplishment and achievement, Sunshine Holdings Group’s Watawala Plantation Director/Chief Executive Officer Dr. Dan Seevaratnam, was honoured with the Global ‘CEO of the Year’ award at the Global HR Excellence Award Ceremony 2012/2013, held in Mumbai India, on 17 February. Participants from 88 countries from around the world took part in this prestigious event.

The award ceremony is a highly recognised event in the international domain and provides a great platform for global industry players to interact and share their knowledge and experiences.

The Watawala Plantation CEO is a veteran in the plantation industry who has been in the field for over 40 years.

The historical significance of this accomplishment is the fact that this is yet another ‘first’ in the annals of Sri Lanka’s plantation industry where a professional planter has been acknowledged at a global level.

Dr. Seevaratnam began his career as a trainee assistant manager and later rose to the position of Chief Executive Officer, the highest position a planter could reach in his career.

One of his significant career achievements was being the chief architect in the ‘turn around’ of three plantation management organisations Maskeliya Plantations and Namunukula Plantations then managed by John Keells Holdings and Kahawatte Plantations managed by Forbes Plantations.

Apart from being CEO of Watawala, he holds directorships at the Tea Research Board, the Coconut Research Board and the Plantation Human Development Trust.

He is also the Chairman of Consultative Committee on Estates and Advisory (tea research institute) as well as the Ceylon Planters Provident Society.

He recently won recognition for being presented the ‘Lifetime Gold award for 2012’ by the Institute of Personal Management of Sri Lanka (IPM) and the ‘Asia pacific HRM Congress Lifetime Achievement Award 2012’, marking a special milestone in his career and bringing honour to the plantation fraternity.

He took over the position of Chief Executive Officer of Watawala Plantation in 2008. Under Dr. Seevaratnam’s leadership, Watawala has become a premier tea plantation company in Sri Lanka.

A subsidiary of the blue chip Sunshine Holdings, it is also a joint venture with the renowned TATA Group, which owns UK’s No.1 tea brand ‘Tetley’. Watawala Plantation manages 17 of the finest tea gardens in the island, spreading across 12,500 hectares of land and employing around 12,000 associates.

Dr. Seevaratnam is an old boy of Trinity College Kandy, and was appointed as Head Prefect of the school in 1969. As an outstanding student, he won the Ryde Gold Medal 1969 awarded to the best all-round student in that year.

He is an effective team leader, a well known agriculturist and a trainer who believes in knowledge sharing.

He introduced the concept of ‘Partners-in-Progress’ into the plantation sector where, through building bridges of understanding between workers, trade unions and the management, a win-win culture was established.