Renowned tea exporter Rohan Fernando has been appointed as the new chairman of E-Channelling PLC.

Fernando replaces P. G. Kumarasinghe Sirisena, who served as Chairman of E-Channelling to 22nd January 2020.

Rohan Fernando has over 40 years of experience in the tea industry and has been successful in innovation, promoting and marketing the traditional beverage of tea in many variants.

He is the creator of the global tea brand HELADIV registered in 40 countries. He began his career as a Tea Taster at Carson Cumberbatch & Co., Ltd. In 1975.

Fernando joined Brooke Bond Ceylon Limited and served as a Manager in the Tea Department from 1979 to 1989 with a secondment of one year as a Tea Trader, at its headquarters in the United Kingdom in 1982.

In 1990, he established HVA Lanka Exports as a joint venture with the Dutch agricultural conglomerate HVA Holdings bv and expanded the organisation to include several subsidiary companies, HVA Foods PLC., HVA Beverages & HVA Holdings. He is also the Chairman and CEO of the HVA Group and Chairman of HVA Farms (Pvt) Ltd., an organic agro-resort in the NWP., Chairman of the Boards of Sri Lanka Telecom PLC, Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd. and its subsidiaries.

Rohan Fernando is the current chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom PLC. He served on the Colombo Tea Traders Association as a member and also as a Director on the Sri Lanka Tea Board and as an Independent Director of the Sri Lanka Industrial Technology Institute from 2015 to 2016.

Fernando functioned as the  President of the National Chamber of Exporters in 2008 and 2009. He served as the elected Chairman of the Tea Exporters Association of Sri Lanka from 2014 to 2016. He is a National award winner since 1997 at the NCE Exports Awards and was selected “Exporter of the Year” winning Gold awards in 4 categories, in 1999. Rohan was also awarded “Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the year 2015,” winning the National Gold award and “Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the year 2015,” with a Provincial Gold award.

He is a multi-disciplined sportsman at school and represented and captained Sri Lanka at Rowing. He currently heads the Sri Lanka Amateur Rowing Association and is also a senior member of the National Olympic Committee.

The largest shareholder of E-Channelling PLC is Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd with a 87.59% stake.  Mobitel is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom.