EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The RTP which is supported by the Ministry of Tourism comprises stakeholders from government, industry and NGO/academic backgrounds and is directed by a board of senior industry executives, experts and academia.

The board, which functions as the Executive Committee includes a very highly experienced and well-respected group, eminent in their respective fields.  The Committee in total has eight members which includes individuals and association representatives of hoteliers and inbound tour operators, an overseas tour operator, one of Sri Lanka’s leading conservationists and sustainable development experts. 

Hiran Cooray

Having completed his primary and secondary education at St Joseph’s college, Colombo Hiran Cooray graduated from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro in year 1987 with a Degree in Marketing.  In the same year he joined Jetwing Hotels as its Managing Director, the position he holds currently.  Almost 20 years in the Tourism Industry, Hiran has been actively involved in trying to re-position Sri Lanka’s Tourism Industry and in particular driving Jetwing Hotels to reach extremely high standards in customer care, service delivery, product differentiation, people development, environment and community development.
He has been Sri Lanka’s Tourism Industry representative to Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) since 1996 .  During the past 10 years he has served on the Board of PATA, been an Executive committee member since 2002/3.  Presently he chairs the PATA Travel Mart Organizing committee, Vice Chairman of the Sustainable Tourism committee, a Trustee of the PATA Foundation, as well as an active member of the PATA Industrial Council.
Hiran Was also Chairman of the PATA Sri Lanka Chapter during the period 2002/2004.  For his outstanding services to PATA, he was bestowed with a Merit award at PATA Annual Conference in Jeju, Korea and Chairman’s Award 2005 in Macau SDR in 2005.
In 2005, he was elected as the President of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL). Hiran was also conferred with the Honorary Title, Sri Lanka Sikhamani  by her Excellency the President of the Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka, for the contribution he has made to the Tourism Industry of Sri Lanka.
He serves on the committee on International Hotels & Restaurants Association (IH&RA) based in Paris. Hiran is a Co- Chairman of the RTP Hiran has a passion for reading, bird watching and cricket.

Vasantha Leelananada

Vasantha  Leelananda has been involved in the tourism industry for over 28 years.  After his secondary education, he joined Walkers Tours -  Sri Lanka’s  premium inbound tour operator and rose to the position of Managing Director in 1997.  In 2005 he was promoted as Executive Vice President of the John Keells Group is the Head of all Inbound Travel Companies which includes specialised entities handling MICE, Nature and Adventure Travel and Transport.  During his career he has been actively involved in marketing and positioning Sri Lanka as an attractive  Inbound travel destination and has been regularly participating in travel fairs and forums worldwide.
He is currently the immediate Past President of the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) and  has held this coveted position for 2 terms lasting a total of 4 years. SLAITO is the apex body looking after the entire inbound tourism industry in Sri Lanka.   He is also a Director of Sri Lanka Convention Bureau and a member of the Tourism Cluster. He has been a Committee member of PATA for many years and was also a member of the  Tourism Think Tank appointed by the previous Minister of Tourism.
Vasantha holds an MBA from the University of Leicester UK and is the Co-chairman of the Responsible Tourism Partnership.

Charmarie Maelge

Charmarie has been formally, Director of Sri Lanka Tourist Board’s office in the UK in charge of UK, Benelux and Ireland markets, Director Research and International Affairs and Director Marketing. She has taken sabbatical leave from her duties at the Tourist Board to help set up and manage the RTP.
Initially, Charmarie has started her career as an entrepreneur setting up and managing a handicrafts project in her village and has been an active member of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Sri Lanka, functioning as its Secretary. She has then moved in to the development field spending a significant duration of her time in remote and rural areas of Sri Lanka. 
With over 10 years of work experience with bilateral & multilateral development agencies (USAID/ IFAD/ UNDP)   as marketing, business development consultant/advisor and a gender specialist, Charmarie has worked in private sector enterprise development, micro credit, international marketing, institutional development, capacity building & empowerment, technology transfers, advocacy group formation, policy & regulatory reform and gender & women in development.
Charmarie holds a MBA and a Bachelor of Commerce Special degree from University of Colombo and is a member of the Chartered Institute Marketing of United Kingdom.  She has undergone World Bank Institute training on Corporate Social Responsibility. During her schooling, she has been an international/intercultural exchange student to Australia.
As RTP’s Executive Director, responsible for programme management and administration, she works full time enthusiastically towards the next big thing for Sri Lanka Tourism: Responsible Tourism.

Renton de Alwis

Renton de Alwis is chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board having been invited to serve for a second term in office since 22nd February 2007. He is a former CEO/ Secretary General of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and Vice President Asia of the Pacific Asia Travel Association based in Singapore, and held several advisory positions with the Singapore and Sri Lankan governments. He is also a member of the Tourism Cluster of the National Economic Development Council appointed by the President of Sri Lanka.

De Alwis has served as a Chief Technical Advisor and/or consultant with the UNDP, WTO, ADB, UNESCO, ILO and ESCAP in the ASEAN and SAARC countries, Greater Mekong countries and China on various projects.

He holds a Masters degree in Resource Economics from the University of Hawaii on an East West Centre Grant and a first class honours degree in Economics from the Keleniya University. His post graduate work has been in the area of coastal zone management and was among those who made pioneering efforts for environmental conservation in Sri Lanka in the 1970s and 80s. During his 35 years of professional life he has worked in the management, marketing, communications, information technology, conservation and community development fields. Most recently, he completed an assignment with the Asian Development Bank as a member of an international team to prepare a master plan for tourism for the greater Mekong Sub-region including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Yunnan Province of China and Vietnam. He is an author and social commentator. He currently contributes a monthly column to the Lanka Monthly Digest (LMD) on Sustainable Development.

Professor Sarath Kotagama

Professor Kotagama is presently a Professor of Environmental Science, University of Colombo, Department of Zoology and has served as Wetland Consultant from September 1992 to October 1992 and Biodiversity Consultant from October 1994 to September 1995.
Professor Kotagama is a member of the Environmental Council, Central Environmental Authority of Sri Lanka; Chairman, Biodiversity Experts Committee; and has received Presidential Award for contribution to environment activities in 2004 ,  he is recipient of distinguish service award for Conservation Education from Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) in 2003. The SCB, with a membership of over 6,000 science experts in 90 countries, is the premier professional society for those seeking to conserve biological diversity and represent the highest recognition that the Society bestows upon colleagues in the struggle to study, protect, sustain, and restore that diversity.   Prof. Kotagama is the third Asian and the only Sri Lankan to receive the award. India's Anil Agrawal and a Malaysian environmentalist were the earlier two winners of this award.
Prof. Kotagama has many 'firsts' to his credit. He founded the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL), the 'March for Conservation', 'The Young Zoologists Association', 'The Sri Lanka Environmental Foundation', 'The Mihikatha Foundation', 'The Mihikatha Institute' and the semi-government 'Wild Life Trust'.
Being actively involved in research on Birds and Wildlife, he has authoured several publications mostly on birds and has made outstanding national contributions. Significant among these are the National Wildlife Policy for Sri Lanka (1990) and the National Wetland Conservation Policy for Sri Lanka (1997), Strategy for the Preparation of the National Biodiversity Action Plan for Sri Lanka (1997).
He has also been the Director of Wildlife (1989-1992) and still provides expert advice to the Wildlife Sector. He is current President of the Eco-tourism Society of Sri Lanka and the President of Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka.
Prof. Kotagama began his study of birds as a student of St. Thomas' College, Gurutalawa under the guidance of the Rev. Foster.

Howard Bicknell

Howard is the Area Manager based in Sri Lanka and responsible for First Choice and Hayes and Jarvis operations in Asia. He has started in March 1991 as a Representative meeting customers from flights and escorting them to hotels and has worked in Portugal, Spain and the Canaries, Cyprus and India
Howard arrived in Sri Lanka on the 11th October 1995, to set up and commence the operation for First Choice, which was only on a 3 month secondment and since then he has been here in Sri Lanka (very happily) for nearly 11 years.
Howard’s job is to ensure that all of their customers have a fantastic holiday within their chosen destination by utilising local partners that provide a quality product, adhere to safety regulations and practice responsible tourism.
First Choice’s vision is to enable people to explore and enjoy the world without harming it. The company has a sustainable tourism policy in place to support this vision and works in a number of ways to make this vision a reality: First Choice new online Environment and People Report explains all the ways that First Choice Holidays PLC is working to care for the environment and the people they work with and affect.
Operating responsibly: First Choice has also set up an environmental management system to help reduce use of natural resources and make operations more efficient. This includes First Choice Airways' concern for the environment.
In taking care of destinations: First Choice works with the Travel Foundation in the UK to help local families and protect the natural environment in holiday destinations.
The company supports the Blue Flag Campaign, which makes annual awards to beaches that meet its exacting environmental, cleanliness and safety standards.

Asoka Hettigoda

Educated at S.Thomas' College, Mt Lavinia,  Asoka received the B.Sc Honours in National Engineering Consortium's W.J. Everett Award for Academic Excellence and Leadership, Northwestern University, IL, USA in 1990.  He is a MBA in Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayawardenapura, in 2003 and has worked at Price Waterhouse, USA, as Management Consultant from 1990-1995.
Asoka is the Managing Director of Hettigoda Group of Companies since 1995. His company is involved in manufacturing, distribution & export of Ayurveda Products and  providing health care services in managing a complete Ayurveda Hospital for Locals, as well as overseas visitors. The company also carries on the business of a 4-Star Category tourist hotel with Ayurveda Spa facilities, which is mainly patronized by tourists from Europe.  Hettigoda Group is the first company in Asia to get ISO 9002 certification, and now it has ISO 9001, ISO 14000 and GMP.  The company under the brand name of   Siddhalepa exports  Ayurveda products to over 40 countries around the world.
Asoka currently works as ; the Co-Chairman of the NCED-Export Sector, Cluster Member - SME and Trade & Tariff Cluster, Hony. Secretary of the National Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka and was a Board Member of Sri Jayawardenapura Council till 2005.

Nirmala de Mel, M. A., CANTAB

Managing Director, Quickshaws Ltd., a private company operating Tissawewa Resthouse and Nuwarawewa Resthouse in Anuradhapura, Quickshaws Tours and Quickshaws Travel Service.   Nirmala is  currently Vice President PATA Sri Lanka Chapter, and President of Ruk Rakaganno (the Tree Society of Sri Lanka), which runs the IFS - Popham Arboretum Dambulla, and initiated a tsunami re-vegetation programme in the south of the island.
She is a founder Board member of Agromart Outreach Foundation, pioneering entrepreneurship programmes for rural women and Past President, and founder member of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a former committee member of the Sri Lanka Business Development Council, the Travel Agents Association and Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka.
Nirmala has worked in the Public Relations Division of J. Walter Thompson London, and  Newsome & Co., Boston, U. S. A., after university in the United Kingdom. She is co-owner of Quinquereme, a shop in London, purchasing and selling handicrafts from Japan, Sri Lanka, Mexico, India.