Thambirajah Mahendiran obtains PhD from University of Colombo

Thambirajah Mahendiran

Thambirajah Mahendiran has successfully completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS), University of Colombo. As a business leader and an  academic, having understood the importance of firms’ CEOs leadership style in achieving performance in an organisation, he conducted a Doctoral research on the same area in the Sri Lankan context and submitted a thesis on ‘Transformational Leadership Style and Breakthrough Performance in Sri Lankan Firms’ which was accepted by the Senate of the University of Colombo and awarded the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) for the contribution he has made to the domain of research in transformational leadership (TFL) style and organisational performance, especially on breakthrough performance (BTP) at firm level in Sri Lankan context.    

Dr. Mahendiran’s research has contributed in advancing the body of knowledge pertaining to the relationship between the firms’ CEOs transformational leadership (TFL) style and organisational performance (overall) particularly breakthrough performance (BTP) of the firms in diverse industries at firm level in the Sri Lankan context. His research study is an early effort and looked at the practice of firms’ CEOs transformational leadership (TFL) style in achieving breakthrough performance (BTP) at the firm-level in the Sri Lankan context. 

It also measured the effectiveness of transformational leadership (TFL) style in building/creating intangible (human, organisational and information) capital and the mediation effects of intangible capital on the relationship between transformational leadership (TFL) and breakthrough performance (BTP) at the firm-level in the Sri Lankan context. He has presented and published part of his findings at the University Colombo, Research Symposium in 2012. He is planning to publish his findings in reputed business and academic journals in the near future. Further, he expects to contribute the knowledge he has gathered and created through the research for the betterment of the country, particularly the youth who are going to be providing leadership in sustainable development of our country representing in various field.

Dr. Mahendiran is a Fellow Chartered Management Accountants (FCMA) and holds his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from PIM, Sri J’pura University. He also possesses a few other professional qualifications to his credit. Dr. Mahendiran is a Certified Professional Marketer (CPM-Asia) and a member of Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (MSLIM) as well. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and further a life member of the Organisation of Professional Association (OPA) as well as an Alumni of PIMA. He has been recognised as an Accredited Director Sri Lanka (Acc. Dir. SL) through the corporate directors program jointly conducted by the CA Sri Lanka and SEC Sri Lanka during June 2014 to August 2014. He has been also a visiting lecturer of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo. 

Dr. Mahendiran, as an Accountant by profession started his management career at Cargills (Ceylon) Plc, as Management Accountant in December 1990 and currently serves as a Director-Consultant at Diamantaire Holdings Ltd. Previously he was the Director Operations and Finance at Excel Global Holdings Ltd. With over two decades of management/leadership careers at diversified business sectors, he has played a pivotal role in strategic management restructuring, change management, designing/implementing performance management and MIS, introduction of Balanced Scorecard (BSC)/Six Sigma in enhancing efficiency/productivity and portfolio management including short/long-term funding arrangement.

Dr. Mahendiran is the son of Murugaesu Thambirajah and late Sivapakium Thambirajah of Varaney, Jaffna, married to Balinee and father of Kajavathanan and currently lives in Wellawatte, Colombo 6.