Shiromal Cooray to continue steering SLID to greater heights

SLID re-elected President Shiromal Cooray (second from right) addresses the AGM. Others from left are Immediate Past President Pravir Samarasinghe, Vice Chairman A.R. Rasiah, Chief Guest IFC Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives Ameena Arif and Senior Vice Chairman Preethi Jayawardena 

The fourth Annual Membership Meeting of the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID) was held on 23 June at the Ivy Room of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel. The occasion was graced by IFC Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives Ameena Arif as the guest speaker.

The main event on the agenda was the election of the Council Members for the year 2016/2017. Shiromal Cooray was unanimously re-elected to serve a second term as the Chairperson while Pravir Samarasinghe continues as the Immediate Past President.

The other officials re-elected to the Council of Members were Preethi Jayawardena as Senior Vice Chairman, A.R. Rasiah as Vice Chairman, Dilani Alagaratnam, Aroshi Perera, Faizal Salieh, Nilanthi Sivapragasam, Dinesh Weerakkody and Prakash Schaffter. Vish Govindasamy was elected to fill the vacancy created by Council Member Kavan Ratnayake stepping down.

The Annual Report and Financial Statements for the period ending 31 March were also presented and approved by the membership.

In her address Chairperson Shiromal Cooray said that it was a productive year with many programs organised by SLID. The main highlight was the partnership with IFC. Previously it was an association which was formalised into a partnership in December 2015 where IFC conducts training programs in collaboration with SLID. 

She drew attention to the fact that there is an incorrect perception, even among some members that SLID is a training institution. SLID offers training programs to directors as there is no formal programs tailor made for directors such as there is for any other profession such as accountants, marketers, Secretaries and even plumbers. Unfortunately for directors there is no such requirement and anybody can be a director. There is no formal training process. 

SLID believes that educating directors on their rights and obligations will improve governance and contribute to the best practices of the Sri Lankan business community. This is one of the reasons why SLID has training programs but this is not the only aspect and the institute is interested and concerned about other issues that are relevant to directors. 

SLID’s flagship program is the Board Leadership Training program which is conducted under the guidance of IFC and endorsed by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka. We have already completed 3 intakes which totals to about 300 people that we have trained. 20 of them have completed all 4 parts and are now graduate SLID members. The fourth intake will be in August this year.

In addition to the BLT program SLID has conducted 10 topical programs and panel discussions. A key event was on the topic of Managing Difficult Conversations which was organised in collaboration with IFC who brought in renowned international speakers of very high calibre. Unfortunately, many SLID members did not make use of this opportunity but many non-members attended. We hope that more of our members will participate in our programs and benefit from them.

There are ambitious plans for the year which have already commenced.  From April to June this year workshops have been conducted on Family Businesses, Women on Boards and SMEs on how to improve governance. SLID will focus on these three areas. Many family businesses have issues such as succession that we would like to address and help them overcome and move to the next level.

Another point SLID is passionate about is diversity on Boards. Gender diversity has become a fashionable topic but it is not the only way a Board can be diversified. Many prefer to have known people or people who are like-minded so that decisions are made without a debate. It has been found that it can be detrimental and that it is better for Boards to be diversified. This is another area that SLID would like to discuss, debate and develop on.   SLID is also keen to help SMEs to get on to the next level and is taking this message to the provinces and has gone to the East, North and the South and will to continue do so in the coming months as well. 

In addition, SLID will continue with the regular panel discussions and forums. A mega event which will be an interesting evening is being organised for 7 October which will be a networking event.

On a personal note ShiromalCooray thanked the Committee for their support and assistance, and the Secretariat which is a small team of four people headed by Lilani Perera for a wonderful job done. On a lighter vein she mentioned that SLID focuses on transparency and reporting true facts and SLID Senior Vice Chairman had pointed out to her that the photograph on page number 3 of the Annual Report is not an accurate one as it was taken a decade ago. She assured him that it will be changed! 

Guest Speaker AmeenaArif shared with those present what IFC was doing in the space of Corporate Governance, especially in Sri Lanka. They felt that it was critical to support and promote private sector development which, they believe is what drives economic growth. “Better governance means better resource allocation better business, better returns.” 

She highlighted the fact that IFC has had a great partnership and great support from SLID and thanked SLID CEO Lilani Perera and the team. “It has been an excellent experience for us. Based on that we are extending our engagement with SLID to go up to January 2017.” IFC’s partnership with SLID is not only in terms of holding workshops and seminars but also is focused on building capacity within SLID. 

The evening concluded with cocktails and fellowship, affording the membership ample networking opportunities.