In 2021 and 2022, Damith Hettihewa presided over the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL). Damith graduated from the University of Moratuwa with a BSc (Eng.) degree in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering and has an MBA from the University of Hull UK. He currently serves as Managing Director of Nimbus Cloud Lanka Ltd. He has served as the Chief Executive Officer/board member of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and has held diverse private and public sector leadership roles. Bringing honour and prestige to Sri Lanka, Damith was elected to be the Chairman of the Governing Council of the APAC Centre for ICT Development (UNESCAP/APCICT), an organization founded by the United Nations Social Economic and Commission in 2018. Damith was adjudged as the People's Leader of IT by the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) in 2017. Damith represented Sri Lanka Universities in athletics at the World University Games in Sheffield UK in 1992. Damith has been a member of the CSSL council since 2014, holding several positions including vice president, secretary, assistant secretary, and council member. Damith served as the Conference Chair of NITC 2014. A few of the major accomplishments during Damith's CSSL presidency include: CSSL achieving International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3) accreditation; adopting CSSL CPD Framework, Initiating and implementing ”Digital CSSL” Digital Transformation project; conceptualizing and starting CSSL Genz Chapters &; Digital Investment Summit, installing a Presidents Honors Board at CSSL Secretariat; launching the CSSL National CIO List; revitalizing and rebranding the Women in IT SIG as CSSL WinIT (Women in IT); and developing policies and compliance procedures for GDPR and Personal Data Protection Act 2022. As a result of CSSL GenZ initiatives, the University of Jaffna was rewarded with an IoT lab worth LKR 15 million in collaboration with Dialog Axiata PLC. CSSL collaborated with the ground-breaking www.open.uom.lk project at the University of Moratuwa, where Damith was a key contributor.
Prabath Samindra Wickramaratne is the immediate part president of CSSL and held the position from 2019 to 2020. He is the Vice President – Head of Operations / Head of IT at Deutsche Bank Sri Lanaka operations.
Yasas Vishuddhi Abeywickrama was the President of CSSL from November 2016 to December 2018, for two years. As CSSL President, Yasas gave leadership to many historic milestones including organizing Sri Lanka’s Biggest Ever International ICT Event around IFIP General Assembly that was held in Sri Lanka in 2017, launching of Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct for Sri Lankan IT professionals and induction of Sri Lanka into Seoul Accord by uplifting CSSL degree Accreditation processes to global standards. CSSL Tech Talks and Little Drops of Water are CSSL brand properties initiated during Yasas’ Presidency. During this time, the CSSL recruited over 2000 IT students as student members, increased member engagement and the organisation became an active and vocal vibrant outfit. Strong international relationships and broad local relevance was the hallmark of his leadership for CSSL. He is a long long standing active member of CSSL, and was a Council Member, Publications Secretary, Secretary and Vice President before becoming the President.
Dr. Dayan Rajapakse is the founder of ESOFT Computer Studies (Pvt) Ltd and now he is the Chairman and Managing Director of the ESOFT Group. After completing the BCS professional examination in 1993 he started his it career as a part time lecturer and became a sought after lecturer for BCS and ACS professional examinations. Later he graduated from the Colombo University with MBBS but gave up his medical career to continue his passion towards IT and the training industry. He has been instrumental in uplifting the standard of IT in Sri Lanka by taking IT training to the rural areas of Sri Lanka via the expansion of ESOFT resulting in new branches being established around the country including the North and the East. He served in the executive council of CSSL in the capacity of Council Member / Student Counselor and Secretary. While he was the student Counselor he started the IT Mastermind inter-school IT quiz competition with the view to uplift the standard and popularity of ICT among the school children.
Mr. Ajith Salgado is the Head of IT at Sampath Bank. With over 17 years ICT experience in the banking and finance sectors, he has a BSc. in Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications from the University of Moratuwa and Master of Business Administration from the University of Colombo.
Mr. Mahesh Perera counts over 18 years of experience in both public and private sector ICT organisations in Sri Lanka. He holds a Masters Degree in Computer Engineering from the State University, former USSR and an MBA in Human Resource Management from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Mr. Perera is presently the Director, Information Systems and Management at the Parliament of Sri Lanka prior to which, he served the Sri Lanka Army and Informatics (Pvt) Ltd. An incumbent President, he has been a committed member serving the Executive Council since 2008. Mr. Perera is a firm believer of ICT and HR convergence towards organisational progression.
A veteran in the field of Information Technology with more than 30 years experience in the areas of software development, IT Project Management, IT Consultancy and IT Management, Mr. Chrisantha Silva has served in CSSL in the capacities of Student Counsellor, Publications Secretary, Vice President and Council Member in previous years. He has also served in the Council of British Computer Society, Sri Lanka Section. He is currently employed at SriLankan Airlines, the National carrier of Sri Lanka. Mr. Silva has published papers in IT magazines and presented papers at several National and International IT conferences. Mr. Silva is a BSc. Graduate from the University of Sri Lanka, has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Open University of Sri Lanka and obtained his professional qualifications in IT from the British Computer Society. He is a Chartered Member (CITP) of the British Computer Society.
Dr. Lokuge has over 24 years of ICT experience in high growth public and private sector organisations both in Sri Lanka and abroad. He obtained his PhD from Monash University, Australia in Artificial Intelligent Agents. Dr. Lokuge’s experience in a few key positions includes: Consultant/CIO, Terminal Link, Malaysia and France, Director of the MIS Department (Sri Lanka Ports Authority), Director (IDM Software International) and MIS Consultant for World Bank and Asian Development Bank funded projects. He has also worked as a Lecturer at Monash University and Central Queensland University, Australia and a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of IT, University of Moratuwa. He is a chartered member of the BCS and holds the membership of ACS and the CSSL. Dr. Lokuge is also a member of the Project Management Institute USA and a professional Project Manager (PMP) and is currently the CEO at ESOFT International Education Pvt ltd. He also works as a Consultant (IT & Automation), CMA-CGM, Hong Kong and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Mr, Dinesh Conrad Alexius Sattrukalsinghe is a well accomplished professional with over two and a half decades of Corporate Management experience. During his engagements Mr Sattrukalsinghe has been involved in business process reengineering and optimisation so as to ensure the streamlining of processes and service delivery. His engagements span across Informatics (Pvt) Limited, IBM World Trade Corporation, Virtusa Corporation, Dialog Telekom PLC, Techsys (Pvt) Ltd as Director/CEO, Industrial Technology Institute (CISIR) as Additional Director and the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission as Director/CEO. Mr. Sattrukalsinghe has been a long standing member of the CSSL, starting off as a student member contributing towards IT thought leadership in its IT Exchange. Thereon he graduated to serve in very many Executive Council posts spanning a couple of terms as its Hon. Secretary designate also chairing many sub-committees and ACS and SEARCC Roundtables which were of great National importance. In 2005 he was inducted as its President designate in 2006 wherein he presented avision for CSSL, which was a hall mark and game changer in the annuals of CSSL, which gained the conviction, acceptance and championing power of the wider membership.
Mr. Lional Perera obtained a diploma in Mechanical Engineering in 1967 from the University of Moratuwa. He has a diploma in Textile Technology from the University of Bombay, a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management from the Institute of Business Management and a MBA from the University of Colombo. He is currently reading for his PhD. at the University of Colombo. He has been a long standing member of the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) and served council in various capacities, starting as the Secretary from 1995 to 1996. During this time, he has served in a number of committees of CSSL and contributed to the development of the society. He has also held the Presidency in the Association of Computer Training Organisations, Directorship of SLICTA and the Vice Presidency in the South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC). He is a Chartered Member of the British Computer Society (CITP), an Associate Member of the Cost and Management Accountants (ACMA), Member of the Institute of Data Processing Management (MIDPM), Member of the Institution of Analysts and Programmers UK (MIAP) and an Associate Member of the Australian Institute of Management (AIMM). He started his career as a Textile Technologist and was the Weaving Manager at Wellawatte Spinning and Weaving Mills after which he worked as the Production Manager at Anglo Asian Group of Companies. Mr. Perera joined IDM as a Business Analyst in 1984 and served as the Director / General Manager from 1986 to 1989 of IDM Software International (Pvt) Ltd. At present he is the Director of Studies of IDM Computer Studies (Pvt) Ltd and is involved in planning and designing new courses, preparation of lecture materials, lectures guides, question papers and training of trainers that involved overall management of professional, vocational and degree division of IDM.
An old boy of Trinity College, Kandy Mr. de Silva is the Director and CEO of Metropolitan Computers. An engineer by profession he holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Engineering from UK, a MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) from the University of Sri Jayawardenepura. Mr. de Silva is also the recipient of “The Achievers Award “ from PIM, for his outstanding contribution to the profession, business and society. He has also been appointed President of CSSL, the Sri Lanka Computer Vendors Association and the Colombo Toastmasters Club. A member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors, he is also a Member of the Australian Computer Society and Member Institution of Engineering Technology UK. Mr. de Silva has served in many Information technology forums in the country and has been an Executive Council member of CINTEC, a Governing Council member of the Asian ICT Confederation and an Executive Council member of the South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation. Mr. de Silva has conducted many communications and leadership development programmes for business executives, youth and was a visiting lecturer for Business Communication at the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS) and a regular guest speaker at career development seminars in the Universities of Moratuwa, Colombo and Kelaniya, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology and many more.
Mr. Yasa Karunaratne graduated from the University of Ceylon with a BSc. Honours in 1967. and in 1979 was awarded a United Nations Fellowship and obtained his Masters in Computer Science from Colorado State University. In 1969 he joined the State Engineering Corporation where he started his illustrious career in Information Technology. In 1970 Mr Karunaratne joined the Department of Census and Statistics where he was fully responsible for architecting the 1971 Census of Population. He served as the Head of IT Department in Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and Head of IT Department in ETF Board. He currently serves as the Secretary General of South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC). He has played a vital role in organising international conferences in Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Chennai, Brisbane and Mumbai. He was an Information Specialist for the US Department of Agriculture and a National Consultant to the United Nations. He revolutionised the Computerised Utility Billing in Sri Lanka in 1987, which has been adopted by the leading utility providers in the country. He was also a Council Member of the Computer Information and Technology Council of Sri Lanka (CINTEC). Mr. Karunaratne was a founder member of CSSL and was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of CSSL in 2001. He introduced the National Schools Software Competition to Sri Lanka in 1990 and enabled Sri Lankan school children to participate in International competitions. One of the prestigious moments of his presidency in CSSL was the hosting of the Sri Lanka’s first International IT Conference – SEARCC’95. As the first Sri Lankan President, Mr. Karunaratne’s leadership as the Chairman of the SEARCC’95 Organising Committee that enabled to enhance Sri Lanka’s image internationally. He has represented the Computer Profession in the Organisation of Professional Associations since 1989 and was its Vice President on two occasions. He was the Chairman of Sri Lanka Information and Communication Technology Association (SLICTA) from 2003-2005 which was considered the voice of the ICT industry in Sri Lanka.
Late Dr. R B Ekanayake was a pioneer in the deployment of Information Technology in the banking sector for over 30 years. He was involved with the industry for over 45 years, beginning his career at the State Engineering Corporation, deploying the first mainframe computer in Sri Lanka. He is also responsible for driving IT deployment in that sector by heading the IT divisions of Bank Ceylon, Sampath Bank and Commercial Bank. He was the founder Chairman of Lanka Clear Ltd, the company established jointly by the Central and Commercial Banks. He was a member of Sri Lanka Interbank payment system from its inception. For his long standing contributions in the field of Information Technology, the Sri Lanka ICT Association (SLICTA) presented him with the “Lifetime Achievement Award” making him the first and only person to be given this award. Late Dr. Ekanayake had a BSc from the University of Ceylon and a MA in Operations Research from the University of Lancaster, UK. He was recently awarded a PhD (Honoris Causa) for pioneering work on Information Technology, by the University of Kelaniya. He became the first Sri Lankan to become a Member of the British Computer Society and was the founder President of CSSL and for 10 years and the First Honorary Fellow. He was a Council Member and one time President of Association of Professional Bankers of Sri Lanka and was presented with the “Most Outstanding Contribution to the Banking Sector”. In the IT Policy development area, late Dr Ekanayake was a member of the Presidential Committee which draft the first National Computer Policy for Sri Lanka in 1983 and was a founder Council member of CINTEC in 1984. He was a Board Director of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the successor to CINTEC and is a Council Member of the University of Kelaniya. He was the Chairman of LK Domain Registry, Chairman SL CERT and advised many government and banking sector institutions. He visited the faculty at the Universities of Colombo,
