Raising the Bar: MAS Honoured at the CIMA-JXG Pinnacle Awards 2025

Winning team of the Gold Award for DEI Champion of the Year 

In an evening that brought together the sharpest minds and most forward-thinking leaders in finance and strategy, MAS Holdings emerged as one of the most decorated organisations at the 2025 CIMA-JXG Pinnacle Awards, securing Gold Awards in three categories: Chief Financial Officer of the Year (Individual), DEI Champion of the Year (Company), and ESG/Sustainability Champion of the Year (Company).

Beyond recognition, these awards signal the values shaping the future of business: innovation, inclusion, purpose, and strategic clarity. In an era where organisations are called to reimagine their role in society and the planet, MAS aims to be an example of leadership that is both principled and pragmatic.

Celebrating Excellence in Leadership: CFO of the Year

This commitment is embodied by leaders like Surath Chandrasena, recipient of the Gold award for the Chief Financial Officer of the Year category—a recognition that not only reflects his exceptional financial acumen, but the trust he commands across the industry as a thought leader, innovator, and strategic catalyst.

As the Group Finance Director, Surath has led the Finance teams of the company through a time marked by volatility, economic disruption, and shifting industry paradigms. But what distinguishes his leadership beyond resilience is clarity of direction.

He has spearheaded efforts to transform the finance function of the company by embracing digitalization. Under his leadership, MAS has been at the forefront of adopting digital tools and technologies, which has revolutionised the way MAS carries out management partnering and financial operations. This has allowed finance business partners to focus on driving growth, profitability and managing risk rather than the compilation of data and reports.

Leading with Insight and Integrity

But strategy is only as effective as the teams empowered to bring it to life. Surath’s leadership style reflects deep humility and a commitment to developing people. At MAS Holdings, finance is no longer just a back-office discipline, but a business partnership function embedded across operations.

Surath has championed learning platforms and initiatives for finance professionals within the group, ensuring that upskilling, rotation, and business immersion are part of every finance leader’s journey. He believes in enabling teams to make bold, informed decisions, and in ensuring they have the tools, context, and confidence to do so.

He also actively mentors emerging leaders across the business, guided by the belief that leadership is not inherited with title, but cultivated through opportunity and support. His own story reflects this: he was appointed CFO of a major Strategic Business Unit before the age of 30, and Group Finance Director in his mid-thirties, becoming the youngest board member of MAS Capital, and a role model for aspiring finance leaders.

Surath has also led the adoption of sustainable finance as a thought leader in the field and securing sustainable funding. Surath is also a strong advocate for the industry and Sri Lanka. His engagements with foreign investors, buyers, and multilateral agencies have helped reposition Sri Lanka as a competitive and credible sourcing base, while his thought leadership has helped shape the next generation of professionals entering a rapidly transforming financial world.

His recognition reflects the quality of leadership cultivated within MAS, further demonstrated by Asanka Samarasekera being awarded Bronze for Business Manager of the Year at the 2025 Pinnacle Awards.

Purpose in Practice: Leading Sustainability & Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

In addition to celebrating excellence in leadership, MAS was honoured with Gold Awards for ESG/Sustainability Champion of the Year and DEI Champion of the Year. These accolades celebrate not just outcomes, but the belief that business can and should be a force for good.

For MAS, this belief has been woven into the company’s story since inception. In an industry long shadowed by ethical and environmental challenges, the founders made a deliberate choice to build differently. From early investments in women’s empowerment to responsible manufacturing, MAS has always been guided by values.

That journey has evolved into the MAS Plan for Change, a long-term sustainability strategy spanning product, lives, and planet. More than a framework, it is a way of working that is built on the promise to innovate boldly, think systemically, and never lose sight of the human and environmental impact behind every product.

Embedding Impact across Product, Lives, and Planet

This commitment to sustainability has influenced not only how MAS designs and produces, but how it partners with customers, suppliers, communities, and even competitors. MAS sees its role in the global fashion ecosystem not just as a manufacturer, but as a collaborator and catalyst. From circular design initiatives and regenerative material innovation to transparent chemical management and energy transition projects, the work reflects a holistic understanding of what it means to be responsible today, and resilient tomorrow.

Equally transformative is the belief that sustainability begins at home, within the organisation, by empowering and including women, colleagues with disabilities, marginalised groups, and those historically left out of decision-making to build a just and future-ready business. Years of investment in training, inclusion, and worker wellbeing have reshaped the company’s culture and created new pathways for leadership, growth, and dignity at work.

A Culture of Belonging

Being named DEI Champion of the Year reflects a belief deeply embedded in MAS- when people are supported to be themselves and reach their potential, both business and society thrive.

With this guiding ethos, the company prioritized dignity and care, building not just efficient factories, but safe, human-centered workspaces. As early as 2003, MAS formalised its commitment to women through Women Go Beyond, a flagship empowerment programme that continues to transform lives.

Today, that legacy drives a systemic approach to DEI, enabling meaningful participation for all- from gender equity in management to accessible, affirming spaces for persons with disabilities and those of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity.

This commitment that goes beyond policy is shaped by listening, to employees, to communities, and to evolving global needs. Leadership plays a visible role, with DEI metrics and goals embedded into performance reviews and leadership KPIs, ensuring accountability begins at the top.

But perhaps the most striking impact of these efforts is not found in numbers, but in the real-life stories, of women rising into leadership, of differently abled colleagues thriving in roles once thought inaccessible, of safe spaces created, careers transformed, and lives touched.

Looking Ahead

As MAS prepares to launch the next chapter of its Plan for Change, it does so with the same clarity of purpose that guided its beginnings—by the belief in doing the right thing and redefining norms, even when it is difficult.

The Pinnacle Awards are not just for recognition, but about what it means to lead at the summit of one’s field. For MAS and leaders like Surath, that summit is not a destination but a vantage point-from which to scan the horizon, recalibrate purpose, and guide others upward. MAS is humbled to push forward on this journey toward products that reflect the care with which they were made, workplaces that honour human dignity, and systems that respect our planet’s boundaries.

Winning team of the Gold Award for ESG / Sustainability Champion of the Year