Rohantha Athukorala from Sales Rep. to Harvard Biz School

A place that selects the talent to the work Harvard Business School has picked Sri Lankan business professional and respected thought leader Rohantha N.A. Athukorala for their spring senior management executive education programme on ‘Leadership in a Global Political Economy’ scheduled for June 2011 at the Harvard campus in Boston, USA.

Athukorala, who started his career as a sales representative selling soaps, washing powders and mosquito coils for multinationals Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser, went on to become an award winning marketer not only in Sri Lanka but also in the South Asian Region and was subsequently headhunted by American industrial detergent giant JohnsonDiversey, where he secured a global leadership award for outstanding business achievement.

Thereafter moving to a national role Athukorala gave leadership to the Sri Lanka Export Development Board and the pivotal policymaking body of the Government of Sri Lanka, the National Council For Economic Development when the country crossed the Rs. 6,000 billion export mark and 7.4% GDP growth. Subsequently he was appointed to the key role at the Director Economic Affairs of the Government Peace Secretariat during the final phase of the war on terror where he was instrumental in developing private sector business in the war-torn Jaffna peninsula.

Athukorala now serves the global community, United Nations as the Head National Portfolio Development of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) for Sri Lanka and Maldives whilst also serving the mother land as the Chairman of the Tea Cluster Ministry of Industries, Board Director Sri Lanka Export Development Board, Industrial Development Board of Ceylon and Marketing Committee of the Sri Lanka Tea Board.

Given his passion for serving the Small and Medium Enterprises in rural Sri Lanka, Athukorala is on the National Task Force of the Venture Capital formation for SMEs, Association of Chambers, Sri Lanka Designer Festival.

In the thrust of developing the tourism industry of Sri Lanka in the private sector he serves the leisure sector of the Serendib Board on the area of brand marketing.