Sivaram Kulendran elected Colombo MBA Alumni President

At the 26th Annual General Meeting of the University of Colombo MBA Alumni Association held recently at the Shangri-La hotel, Sivaram Kulendran was elected President for the year 2023-24.

Sivaram is the Managing Director, Global Arm Education and Consulting Director, Ceylon Aqua and Agri Ltd. He has been an active member of the Association for the past decade and has contributed in various ways to its dynamic programs.

In accepting office, Sivaram promised to continue all the programs begun earlier and to seek ways and means to improve the member benefits and add value to the university. Emphasising the importance of working together during evolutionary times, he declared that the theme of his tenure would be “Connect, Communicate and Collaborate to rebuild Sri Lanka.” 

“In the 21st century we are rapidly losing personal relationships, owing to inter-connectivity and smart automation. However rather than treating the situation as an enemy, we need to make it our slave in pursuing our economic goals. The three essential elements of togetherness are connectivity, collaboration and communication. Advances in technology have aided these in new and unusual ways,” Kulendran said. He assured that the Association will use all the tools and opportunities to work together, as a team in achieving the set goals.

Immediate Past President Chandima Samarasinghe recapped the success of the past year activities, where the Association’s flagship event – “The post budget forum” conducted with the participation of the President of Sri Lanka and the ESG summit were amongst the highlights along with the “Kiss-a-night” beach party and “Kurumba” cricket tournament which were aimed at member engagement. The revamped website of the Alumni Association was also re-launched by the Colombo University Vice Chancellor Prof. H.D. Karunaratne at the event.

Suraj Radampola was elected Deputy President and Ajith Silva was elected Vice President. Shermila Rajapaksha became the Secretary of the Association and Pradeep Gunaekara the Asst Secretary. Supeshala was elected as the new Treasurer where E&Y was re-elected as Auditors.

The Chief Guest for the event was economist, Prof. Howard Nicholas. Addressing the gathering he shared his life experience and knowledge on investment opportunities during economic turmoil and stated that the society must be aware of the behaviour of business cycles. Based on his research and expertise, he assured that Sri Lanka has very high potential to bounce back to normalcy economically in future if the right measures and controls are implemented. University of Colombo Vice Chancellor Prof. H.D. Karunaratne and the patron of the Association graced the occasion as the guest of honour and shared the success story of the latest world rank stance of the university during the past few years. 

BOI Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody, Standard Chartered Bank Sri Lanka CEO Bingumal Thewarathanthri, Registrar of the University of Colombo, faculty members and about 100 members of Alumni Association graced the occasion. The event concluded with cocktails and fellowship.

Pix by Upul Abayasekara