Shippers Council confers honorary membership on Chullantè Jayasuriya

Wednesday, 4 May 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

From left Sean Van Dort, Chairman, M. Chula Jayasuriya, Vice Chairman Chrisso De Mel at the awarding ceremony

The Sri Lanka Shippers Council conferred honorary membership on Chullantè Jayasuriya, the former Secretary General of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, on 16 March, at a ceremony which was held at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

Jayasuriya was recognised by the Sri Lanka Shippers Council for outstanding services he rendered to the Shippers Council as the Assistant Secretary of the Council, from 1986 to 1992 and as the Secretary General of the Council, from 1992 to 2002. He was also the Secretary General of The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce from 1992 to 2002.

“We recognised Jayasuriya for the excellent leadership he gave to the Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council during his tenure as the Secretary General and also recognise the continuous support he is providing to the Council even after leaving office,” said Sean Van Dort, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Shippers’ Council.

Jayasuriya was the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka from 2009 to 2011 and has served in Multilateral and International Development Cooperation agencies such as UNDP Sri Lanka and The Asia Foundation, Sri Lanka and as a consultant to GIZ. His expertise covers areas which include International Development Cooperation, private sector development, policy planning implementation, project management and management of Chambers of Commerce.

He is a UN-ESCAP trained Trainer-of-Trainers in Maritime Transport and Freight Forwarding and has been involved in Training and Adult Education for over two decades. Jayasuriya is currently a member of the visiting faculty at the Diploma in Shipping Law Programme of the Institute for Commercial Law and Practice (ICLP).

Jayasuriya is a Chartered Transportant (CMILT) and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, United Kingdom, with professional qualifications in International Logistics and Transport. He has Post Graduate Qualifications in International Business: Theory and Practice and International Trade Law from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

He is currently the Country Director and Senior Advisor - Sri Lanka of Bower Group Asia, the leading Business Advisory Group based in Washington DC, USA. He holds dual Australian and Sri Lankan citizenship.

The Sri Lanka Shippers Council is the first National Shippers’ Council to be set up in Asia and was established on 23 March 1966, on a recommendation by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).