Friday Dec 13, 2024
Friday Dec 13, 2024
Thursday, 14 June 2012 00:34 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe, Chairman of Bank of Ceylon, was recently awarded with the Communication and Leadership Award by District 82 of Toastmasters International.
The award was presented to him by the President of Toastmasters International, Distinguished Toastmaster Michael Notaro at the inauguration ceremony of the recently concluded Annual Conference of District 82 – Ovation 2012.
The Communication and Leadership Award is the most prestigious award presented by the District to a non-toastmaster who exemplifies outstanding communication and leadership skills and it is once in three years that a Sri Lankan is chosen for this rare honour. Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe is the second Sri Lankan to have been chosen for this singular honour.
As Chairman of the Bank of Ceylon, Dr. Wickramasinghe has been instrumental in bringing BoC to the forefront in many nation building endeavours that have contributed vastly to the economic development of the country. He has also played an active role in securing the bank’s position as an icon of strength and stability on a global level, one example being the establishment of a BoC subsidiary in London, UK in 2008.
In addition to being Chairman of Bank of Ceylon, he also holds the position of Chairman of the Informatics Group of Companies, a company he founded in 1983. Previous positions he has held are Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka and the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka.
An avid promoter of sustainable agriculture, Dr. Wickramasinghe, with Informatics, has invested in alternative crop farming on a 1,000 acre plantation situated in Mahaweli System C. It is the first plantation in the country to implement large scale drip irrigation.
With hands-on experience and insights on the agricultural economy, he is a strong proponent of poverty alleviation through sustainable financing methods and improved access to capital markets and investment avenues for the masses.
Dr. Wickramasinghe holds a Master of Science in Systems Analysis from the University of Aston, Birmingham, UK and a Doctorate in Business Administration from Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He returned to Sri Lanka in 1983 with over a decade of extensive senior level experience in UK and Belgium, to establish the Informatics Group of Companies.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI) of UK and a Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS). Dr. Wickramasinghe is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM).
