Veteran hotelier Srilal appointed to LAUGFS Leisure Board

LAUGFS Leisure Limited a fully owned subsidiary of LAUGFS Gas PLC announced yesterday the appointment of veteran hotelier Sirilal Miththapala to its Board of Directors.

Miththapala joins LAUGFS Leisure Board at a time the company is taking serious initiatives to be a leading player in the hospitality industry in Sri Lanka.

LAUGFS Leisureis currently involved in construction of luxury five star resort in Chillaw, and said that it has earmarked to expand its presence to the other parts of the country with similar kind of investments.

Accordingly the company has plans to complete leisure projects in time for the 2016/17 season and also expand into managing hotels that fall under the ‘Small Luxury Sector’ category.

Miththapala had his early education in Sri Lanka and graduated from the University of Moratuwa.

He holds a BSc Degree in Engineering and he is also a Chartered Electrical Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, London, and a Member of the Institute of Hospitality UK.

His over 30 years’ of experience includes senior management positions, directorates in the mercantile sector as well as the in the tourism industry.

He served in several senior capacities with the Confifi Group for 14 years, and then as Director/CEO of Serendib Leisure Management Limited for 10 years. He was also a Member of the Board of Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management and the President of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka for two years.  He also has serious interests in wild life and environment and has authored a book on Sri Lankan elephants. He has been in the forefront of promoting Sri Lanka as an environmentally sustainable tourism destination, and the work he spearheaded at Serendib Leisure, re-positioning Hotel Sigiriya into environmentally friendly hotel, won several international awards and is today an accepted case study in the industry.

He has made presentations at several international forums re Sri Lanka and sustainability and environment, and is a guest lecturer at the University of Plymouth, UK on tourism and sustainability.

Miththapala currently serves as the Project Director/Consultant to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for the EU funded project Greening Sri Lanka Hotels, a Member of Sri Lanka Hotel Classification Committee, a consultant on tourism to the World Bank, Washington DC, the board of the LAUGFS Leisure Limited comprises, Chairman W.K.H Wegapitiya, Managing Director  U.K. Thilak De Silva, Director H.A Ariyaratne and Director  Srilal Miththapala.