Chandula among world’s sought after top microfinance leaders

Wednesday, 16 February 2011 00:08 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Deputy General Manager – Marketing and Retail Banking of Hatton National Bank Chandula Abeywickrema, who is also the Chairman of the Banking With The Poor Network, was among the 25 microfinance leaders around the world who were invited to this advanced leadership initiative where skills and exchange of ideas took place during the week long programme which was held in Philadelphia from 16 to 22 January,

sharing the best practices and learning the latest leadership strategies for guiding microfinance institutions in a challenging global economic landscape.

The Centre for Microfinance Leadership in strong partnership with the MasterCard Foundation, which heavily subsidised the cost, created this unique opportunity for the microfinance leaders in the respective countries and regions in the world to reflect on the state of the industry, leverage and shared experience to respond to the dynamic conditions of the microfinance environment.

Reflecting on the current industry challenges and innovations that require in the global frontier with a clear emphasis on practical and actionable tools will enable the global microfinance industry to lead in empowering billions of people who need to be economically enriched.

Michael Useem, Professor of Management at Wharton and the Director of its Centre for Leadership and Change Management has said: “This is an extraordinary group of leaders of microfinance institutions around the world that has been assembled to understand the rapidly evolving market and to explore solutions pragmatically and take critical leadership initiatives in the midst of diverse challenges that are being faced by the industry.”

One of the key areas of the discussion was managing extraordinary events relating to disaster preparedness and creating solutions not only disaster management but also on the proactive initiatives that would create sustainability in the midst of disaster and extraordinary events particularly to the people at the bottom of the pyramid.