Wood-Based Industrialists Association appoints Channa Wijesekara as new President

Thursday, 10 July 2014 00:51 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Wood-Based Industrialists Association of Sri Lanka announced that Channa Wijesekara, the former Senior Vice President and the Managing Director of Leema Creations Ltd., was unanimously elected as the President of the Association. The installation of the new President was done at the WBIA Annual General Meeting held recently. WBIA views this appointment as a sign of its commitment to the industry as Channa’s wealth of experience of 40 years in the industry and his comprehensive related overseas exposure will enormously help the industry during his tenure of office.

The other elected Office Bearers are Gemunu Senanayake of Timber Corporation – Senior Vice President; Kishan Gunaratne of Craft Supplies – Vice President; Aruna Satharasinghe of A-Wood Lanka – Secretary; V. Selvaraj of Beira Parawood Products – Treasurer; and Cyril Dahanayake of Rosewood Interiors – Asst. Secretary. Elected Committee Members are Lakshman Wanniachchi of Chemwood, Lakshman Thilakaratne of Asian Woodware, Walter Gunawardena of Comtech, G.B. Chandrasiri of Gamage Enterprises, Lal Rathnayake of Alpha Industries and Deepthi Wickramasinghe of Viveca Rattan Industries The WBIA was formed and incorporated in 2005 to support and promote the manufacture and the marketing of wood based products. Most of the wood-based industries in Sri Lanka are members of this association. WBIA was instrumental in achieving several tasks by making representations to the Government. Members of the Executive Committee of WBIA serve on the technical committees of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Sri Lanka Export Development Board. The vision of the WBIA is to support and promote the manufacture, marketing and sales wood based products and to actively engage in advocacy with Government and other institutions for policy and regulatory reforms to benefit the international competitiveness of the industry. The new President Channa Wijesekara is an incorporated civil engineer passed out from University of Moratuwa. He has written two books on ‘Basic Wood Technology’ in Sinhala and English, published by SMED, the umbrella organisation of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Wijesekara became a qualified ‘wood technologist’ after successfully completing a two-year full-time ‘Technical Teachers Certificate in Wood Technology’ in Germany. He also has completed the Diploma in Education Administration from Landau University in Germany. Subsequently, he was trained at Colombo Plan Staff College and Dual Tech in Manila, Philippines on ‘Industry – Vocational Training Cooperation’ and also participated in basic and Moderators programs in ‘Objective Oriented Project Planning’ in Thailand. He has worked as a wood working consultant for number of firms and also worked as a curriculum writer for wood-related trades for World University Services, Canada, National Institute of Education, NAITA, etc. Wijesekara worked as a Lecturer at Moratuwa University on Wood Technology for BSc Furniture Design degree and MSc in Forestry program at the University of Sri Jayawardanapura. Wijesekara is currently the Managing Director of Leema Creations Ltd. and Leema Constructions Ltd. and is a distinguished old boy of Richmond College, Galle and Nalanda College, Colombo.