Sri Lanka’s Madu Ratnayake in world’s Top 100 Tech Leaders 2021 list

Madu Ratnayake

Sri Lanka’s IT industry fame Madu Ratnayake has been picked as one of the world's Top 100 Leaders 2021 by the popular and influential technologymagazine.com.

Nominated by readers of Technology magazine and compiled by its in-house team, the announcement of this extensive list is sure to become a landmark date in the calendar – which took place this year at the end of day one of Technology, AI and Cyber Live on 14 September.

Virtusa Executive Vice President and CIO Madu Ratnayake was ranked at Number 61. Number one was Amazon CTO and VP Werner Vogels followed by Zoom Global Group CIO Harry Moseley, Volkswagen Group CIO Beater Hofer, Microsoft Group CIO and Executive VP Technology and Research Kevin Scott, and Google CIO Ben Fried. The magazine is published by BizClick Media Group (MPG).

In addition to his global responsibilities, Madu also heads Virtusa Sri Lanka operations. Virtusa is a global provider of digital strategy, digital engineering, and IT services and solutions.

The top 100 list of the leading executives and influencers in the industry was announced in mid-September and shared across social media channels and presented in a special supplement that honours all of those named in the annual list.

In March, the magazine came out with the Top 100 Women to mark International Women’s Day. BizClik Media Group Editorial Director Scott Birch described the Top 100 as individuals championing everything that we love about technology and embracing best practice that’s good for business.

“We had thousands of nominations and can’t wait for the big reveal. No doubt there will be some surprises and everyone who makes the list fully deserves their place, from one to 100,” he added. 

He said when the magazine began its search for the Top 100 Leaders in Technology six months ago, they did not think they appreciated what a task it would be.

“Hundreds of nominations flooded in and we quickly realised that devising the final list was going to be a welcome challenge – welcome as there are so many talented leaders in technology. We are proud to present this final list of 100 leaders, innovators and influencers. Each thoroughly deserves their place, yet so many great names had to be excluded. Well done to everyone who was nominated and who knows? Maybe they will make this annual list next year,” added Birch. 

Madu is a Chartered Engineer, Certified Gamification Master and holds an MBA and a first-class honours degree in software engineering from City University in London. He has over 20 years of experience in the IT services industry.

As the group Chief Information Officer, Madu is responsible for Virtusa’s enterprise digital business strategy. In this role, he focuses on building our award-winning enterprise digital platform and practices by harnessing the collective wisdom of our global team to deliver world-class digital engineering services, accelerate sales, and drive team engagement.

Madu represents the IT industry on the boards of several leading universities and serves as a Non-Executive Director of one of the largest banks in Sri Lanka. He plays a number of advisory roles for the Government on its digital economy and export strategy. He is the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on IT/BPM for the Export Development Board, a member of the consultative committee of the Ministry of Digital Infrastructure and IT and a steering committee member of the Prime Minister’s initiatives on the Digital Economy. 

Madu is a Founder Director and former Chairman of the Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM), the industry body for IT and BPM in Sri Lanka, and the former Chairman of Sarvodaya Fusion, the ICT for development arm of Sarvodaya, the largest NGO in Sri Lanka.