PIMA felicitates Prof. Dharmasiri, new Director of PIM

PIM Alumni (PIMA) is the association of academics and professionals who graduated with Master’s and Doctoral degrees from the Postgraduate Institute of Management, affiliated to the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. PIMA recently organised a vibrant felicitation ceremony for Professor Ajantha S. Dharmasiri, the new Director and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the PIM, at Hotel JAIC Hilton.

The objective of this colourful ceremony was to recognise Professor Ajantha Dharmasiri’s recent prestigious appointment to the PIM, awarding him the full Professorship of management and to appreciate his valuable services rendered to PIMA as its patron, as well as long standing advisor. 

Professor Dharmasiri also serves as an adjunct Professor at the Price College of Business, University of Oklahoma, USA. He has over two decades of both private and public sector working experience in diverse environments including multinational Unilever and Nestle. He has engaged in consultancies in more than 14 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He serves in the Board of National Institute of Business Management (NIBM), Citizens Development Bank (CDB) and the Association of the Management Development Institute of South Asia (AMDISA). He was also a member of the governing council of the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) in Sri Lanka. 

He is a Commonwealth AMDISA Doctoral Fellow and a Fulbright Post Doctoral Fellow. He holds a PhD and an MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a BSc, in Electrical Engineering from the University of Moratuwa. He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer by profession and a member of the Chartered Institute of Management, UK as well. 

Prof. Dharmasiri as an academic scholar has presented research papers at international conferences in more than 10 cities in Asia, America, Australia and Europe. He has published articles in local and foreign journals, and is also an author of six books. He has won many accolades including Gold Medals for best papers in two international management conferences; and in 2010, the Platinum Awards by the Alumni of the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIMA) for outstanding academic contribution. 

He recently won the prestigious IPM Life time Gold award 2014, the highest honour for an HR professional in Sri Lanka. He is a fellow member of the Sri Lanka institute of Training and Development (SLITAD). He functions as a certified Peer Reviewer of the South Asian Quality System (SAQS) as well.

The initiation of his career with the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and at the PIM has been truly interesting. Being an enthusiastic and dedicated young Senior Corporate Manager from the well known private sector in Sri Lanka, a few visits to the PIM prompted him to commence lecturing in Management and within a short period of time he transformed himself as one of the leading presenters in the field of human resource management in Sri Lanka. 

Having considerable experience in the private sector multinational blue chip companies, Prof. Dharmasiri opted to serve at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura as a faculty member and soon became a leading and quality lecturer of repute in the field of management and specialising the subject of Human Resource Management. 

Soon after the tenure of Professor Mangala Fonseka, Professor Dharmasiri was entrusted to serve as the Acting Director of the PIM and during a limited period of time, PIM was fortunate to witness the gradual transformation of the institute with new MBA programs at the PIM in Sri Lanka as well as in the Middle East. During this period, several affiliations with world renowned universities for post doctoral studies have given extra strength to the PIM.

His valuable contributions to the field of Human Resource Management was highly recognised recently by the Institute of Management (IPM), who presented him the life time Gold Award for his invaluable contributions to the field of Education and Human Resource Management .

The keynote address at the felicitation was delivered by Institute of Policy Studies in Sri Lanka Executive Director Dr. Saman Kelegama. During his presentation Dr. Kelegama emphasised the valuable contributions of Professor Dharmasiri for the field of education and particularly to the postgraduate Institute of Management and recalled his rapid and dynamic transformation from being a Chartered Engineer of Electrical Engineering to an Engineer of Minds and Hearts of the people. 

He also stated the ambitious intention of Professor Dharmasiri to take the PIM to further heights by becoming the centre of excellence in management in South-east Asia. The PIMA felicitation event was graced by a large gathering of the PIM postgraduates as well as well-wishers from the academic and corporate sector professionals.