Business Magnates, a meeting of the finest business minds organized by Hashtag Media powered by CIMA Sri Lanka, successfully concluded recently at The Kingsbury Colombo. This was the first edition of the Business Magnates series that aims to conduct progressive events focusing on different industries and areas of interest in the future.

The event brought together some of Sri Lanka’s top tier Business Magnates on to one platform where they tapped into their considerable experience and knowledge across varying industries to provide insights to the large audience. The business leaders included Sivakrishnarajah Renganathan – Managing Director/Group CEO of Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, Zahara Ansary – Country Manager of CIMA Sri Lanka, Aelian Gunawardene – Founder/Managing Director of JAT Holdings, Dulith Herath – Founder/Chairman of Kapruka.com, Java Lounge, Global Shop and Co-Founder of Grasshoppers, along with Dileep Mudadeniya – Head of Corporate Affairs of John Keells Holdings and Vice President – Marketing of Cinnamon Hotels.

Dulith Herath spoke of the unprecedented challenges faced by the Kapruka brand during the pandemic and how it overcame those challenges to make rapid progress that led to a successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) in December of last year resulting in an oversubscription. Dulith also touched upon what inspired him to become an entrepreneur, how he has built his personal brand while building his business brands and how Kapruka plans to increase revenue in US Dollars in line with the increase in tourism. Zahara Ansary provided her views on how CIMA is helping individuals change direction in their working lives from taking the traditional path of following higher education courses to acquire qualifications with the aim of securing employment and building careers in corporates to the more modern approach of embracing entrepreneurship to build up a business from scratch to create jobs and contribute towards boosting the local economy and reducing unemployment.

Elaborating on JAT’s pandemic experience, Aelian Gunawardene stated that JAT also navigated through some tough situations amidst the country’s hard times during the past two years. However, the company was able to successfully restructure its business and pivot towards hand sanitizer and cleaning products since they had the manufacturing capabilities for it. Sivakrishnarajah Renganathan shared his views about the importance of responsible banking and the role of banks in Sri Lanka to create a financially inclusive and independent population. Dileep Mudadeniya provided insights on how listing in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) has benefited Cinnamon Hotels, advantages of the new generation focusing more on entrepreneurship, and how one can build a personal brand in hospitality.

Business Magnates was powered by CIMA Sri Lanka (Title Sponsor), Park Street Gourmet (Gift Partner), Good PR (PR Partner), Craft Cube (Creative Partner), FPA International (Event Partner) and The Kingsbury Hotel (Hospitality partner).