ACCA Sri Lanka holds AGM and showcases a host of achievements reaped in 2020/ 2021
Seated left to right – Nilusha Ranasinghe – Head of South Asia Cluster-ACCA, Nandika Buddhipala – Chairman Member Network Panel ACCA Sri Lanka, Jehan Perinpanayagam – Vice Chairman Member Network Panel ACCA Sri Lanka and Ruchera Jayawardena Peries – Business Development Manager ACCA Sri Lanka. Standing left to right – Adrian Perera, Rathnakala Kumaragurunathan, Prasanna Balachandran, Shehan Fernando, Dasun Mendis, Channa De Silva, Nisreen Rehmanjee and Rakitha Jayatunge
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ACCA Sri Lanka appointed CFO of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, Nandika Buddhipala as the Chairman, Member Network Panel of ACCA Sri Lanka for the year 2021/ 2022 at the ACCA Annual General Meeting. CEO of Info mate (Pvt) Ltd, Jehan Perinpanayagam was selected as the Vice-Chairman.
Buddhipala counts over 25 years of experience in the Banking, Telecommunication and Audit & Assurance industries.
He has a BSc in Business Administration and Post Graduate Diploma in Management from The University of Sri Jayewardenepura, and holds an MBA, MA in Financial Economics, and MSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Colombo.
Whilst being a fellow member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), he is also a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (MCISI) of UK, a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA), Institute of Certified Management Accountants (FCMA) of Sri Lanka and the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (CMA) of Australia, a Senior Associate of Financial Services Institute (SA FIN) of Australia, and a member of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) of USA.
He is the President of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, member of the ACCA Global Education Forum, external faculty member of the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce of Sri Jayewardenepura University, Governing Council Member of the National Institute of Business Management, member of the Corporate Advisory Board of Sri Lanka Finance Association and a member of the Advisory Council of the Colombo School of Business Management.
The rest of the committee for the year 2021/ 2022 comprises Nisreen Rehmanjee – Executive Vice President – John Keells Holdings PLC, Adrian Perera – CEO – Lanka Rating Ltd, Channa De Silva – Chairman – Sarvodaya Development Finance Ltd, Rathnakala Kumaragurunathan – Associate Director – Acuity Knowledge Partners, Prasenna Balachandran – Chief Risk and Control Officer – Hemas Holdings PLC, Dasun Mendis – General Manager Finance – Food Cluster of Ceylon Biscuits Limited Group, Shehan Fernando – CEO/ Senior Lecturer – Alpha Business School (Pvt) Ltd and Rakitha Jayatunge – Attorney-at-Law, Director – Icon Business School.
The event also saw ACCA Sri Lanka celebrating the many successes reaped over the past year in spite of the pandemic. These included organizing over 50 webinars on topics relevant to the current business context for students and members as well as round table discussions held on “Diversity & Inclusion”, Climate action and Generation Z, future skills and the future of work.
ACCA Sri Lanka partnered with SLID, ICC, FITIS, CFA, SLASSCOM, PWC Academy, SLTC and many other institutes within the year to rollout many activities to develop the finance profession in Sri Lanka. In addition, ACCA partnered with SLASSCOM for the second time, to launch a report on the BPM industry.
ACCA also shared over 100 job opportunities with Members along with internship opportunities shared with future members to support their Personal Experience Requirements and improve their employability skills. A global Mentoring program was launched to support members develop their profiles and network with other members globally.
A proud moment for ACCA Sri Lanka was in celebrating the achievements of ACCA member Rathnakala Kumaragurunathan. Rathnakala was chosen as the winner of the National Advocacy award for Sri Lanka in 2020. She was then chosen as the Regional Advocate of the year 2020 for the MESA region.
With the need to continuously upgrade one’s skills to remain relevant at the workplace that has undergone a dramatic push during this pandemic, ACCA as a forward-thinking professional body aims to take a lead role in encouraging and training its students and members to adopt and refresh their skills and to navigate successful career paths in the “new normal.