Ex-CIC fame Samantha Ranatunga new Chairman at HVA Foods

• Tea expert C. G. Stork appointed as CEO/Executive Director

Samantha Ranatunga has been appointed as the Chairman of HVA Foods PLC.

The new appointment follows the resignation of previous Chairman B. S. M. De Silva.

Ranatunga was the Managing Director of CIC Holdings PLC from 2010 to 2019. He joined the Company as an Executive in 1988 and held various senior positions and was Director of main subsidiaries of CIC Holdings PLC namely Chemanex PLC and Link Naturals Ltd. 

Ranatunga served on the Board of Directors of Seylan Bank PLC from 2010 – 2019. During this tenure, he chaired the Risk, Human Resources, Nomination, Marketing and Strategic Planning Committees of the Bank and served as a member of the Audit Committee. He was also the Chairman of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce from 2015 – 2017. 

Since 2019, he headed the pioneering Clinical Research Company, RemediumOne Ltd in Sri Lanka which is a public-private partnership with the University of Kelaniya. 

Ranatunga serves as the Chairman of two companies namely Agro Technology Spectrify AI Ltd and Agroworld Ltd. In late 2023, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Agricultural Modernisation Taskforce of the Presidential Secretariat.

With the latest changes, the Board of Directors of HVA Foods PLC comprises Chairman Samantha Ranatunga, CEO/Executive Director C. G. Stork, Varuni Fernando, Devaka Cooray, Sarva Ameresekere and S.U. Dassanayake.

HVA Foods also announced the appointment of C. G. Stork as CEO/Executive Director.

Stork hails from a family of proprietary tea planters who began his career 30 years ago, in 1994 with Hemas Commodities Ltd. as a tea taster and shortly afterwards moved on to George Steuart Teas Ltd. 

Stork served George Steuart Teas for seventeen years not just as a tea taster but also specialised in blending herbs and flavours that greatly contributed to the value addition of teas. In 2012, he established The Herbal Storage Ltd., to import herbal infusions required for the tea industry. In 2021 he joined Expoteas Ceylon Ltd., where he continued this business and also involved himself with tea exports. 

Stork was also a founder partner of Marah Trading Ltd., where he served for almost five years. The Company provided tea bagging services to the industry and was the first tea packing factory in Sri Lanka to obtain FSSC certification. He established the tea school, Australian Tea Masters - Ceylon Ltd., under the guidance of Australian Tea Masters (Melbourne). This school for tea tasting, has earned the reputation of being the finest institution for one to begin their career in tea, while assisting many entrepreneurs to get into tea exports.