Candor’s Ryan Perera honoured for business leadership

Tuesday, 3 March 2015 00:43 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Candor’s Group Deputy CEO Ryan Perera was honoured at the recently-held Australian Alumni Excellence Awards 2015 where he received the Merit Award for Business Leadership. The event was held for the seventh year and this year there were six awards presented in different categories. The Australian Alumni Excellence Awards is organised by the Australian Government Trade Commission (Austrade) where Sri Lankans with applied skills and knowledge acquired from Australian education are recognised and honoured for excelling in their careers in their respective fields of expertise.

Several Australian universities nominate their alumni for this award ceremony every year with the winners being selected by a panel of judges. Ryan is one of the very few Sri Lankan MBA alumni from the University of Western Sydney (UWS) to receive this award in its seven-year history. He received this Business Leadership Award 10 years since graduating from his UWS MBA. Ryan, with his wealth of private banking experience, took over his new role as Deputy CEO in Candor mid last year, joining some of the capital market veterans with the intention of bridging the best in banking with the local capital markets to provide investors a much-needed product and service differentiation. Candor currently operates in Sri Lanka offering services to both local and foreign clients in asset management, investment banking and stock broking, vital cogs in Sri Lanka’s service sector-driven macro economy. Candor’s immediate parent Eagle Proprietary Investments Ltd. (EPIL), a globally-diversified private investment firm in Dubai, with its core focus on the financial industry and its supporting sectors, remains bullish about Sri Lanka and its growth opportunities. Asked about his leadership style, Ryan stated that a good leader is like an artist who works with a blank canvass to paint the picture of what the future should look like for one’s country, industry or organisation. Such a leader will carry great vision, wisdom, and the ability to inspire others to grasp and live that vision. One should be able to foresee the “Then” and act in the “Now”. Further it is important to ensure the journey towards achieving the end objectives will be more enjoyable and fulfilling for everyone, he says. Asked about some of the key initiatives he has taken in his own place of work, he stated that he saw the true potential of Candor when he joined mid last year and with careful planning along with the team, set the wheels in motion, fuelling the company’s rapid business growth, attracting more select, talented individuals to join the team and be part of the growth story. Today Candor has built a culture and working environment that supports staff to innovate, spread their wings and perform; always keeping the client’s interest at heart. “Candor stands for ‘candid, frank, honest,’ and inculcates these values in our people, culture and in the way we do business, blending both, experience and youth. The team will only get better,” says Ryan, “and we in senior management together with our principles EPIL will continue to support our teams and uphold good governance for the future of Sri Lanka’s capital market industry.” He concluded that he was happy to have received this award as a University of Western Sydney MBA Alumni at a time when UWS has been ranked as one of the top 100 universities in the world, under 50 years old, delivering high quality Australian education to individuals from around the world to contribute towards the development of their organisations, industries as well as their countries.