Sri Lankan corporate governance advocates awarded scholarships by ICGN

Friday, 2 August 2013 03:56 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), which is based in the UK, was founded in 1995 as a not-for-profit organisation to raise the standards of corporate governance worldwide. Its work involves encouraging cross-border dialogue at conferences and influences corporate governance public policy through ICGN committees. ICGN promotes best practice guidance, encourages leadership development and keeps members informed on emerging issues through their publications and their website. ICGN has a global membership of around 600 leaders in corporate governance in 50 countries. The members include institutional investors, business leaders, policy makers and policy advisors interested in promoting good

corporate governance around the world. ICGN also promotes research in corporate governance through surveys on member opinion on key issues. ICGN’s annual conference is held in different parts of the world. It provides opportunities for academic researchers and professionals involved in advocating good corporate governance practices from developing countries to attend the conference through scholarships for registration, membership fees airfare and accommodation. To date, ICGN has awarded three scholarships to Sri Lankans who were actively involved in corporate governance. In 2009, a scholarship was awarded to Professor Lakshman Watawala, an advocate of corporate governance reforms in Sri Lanka. He is the president of CMA Sri Lanka. In the same year, Dr. Kumudini Heenetigala was also awarded a scholarship. She has conducted research on corporate governance practices in Sri Lanka. She is a research fellow at Victoria University in Australia, where she completed a Doctorate in Business Administration. Since the completion of her doctoral studies, she has presented a number of papers in Sri Lanka and overseas on corporate governance of listed companies and small businesses as well as published articles. Dr. Kumudini Heenetigala is also the ICGN Country Correspondent for Sri Lanka, and is responsible to reports on corporate governance initiatives of Sri Lanka. In June2013, ICGN held its annual conference in New York. Dr. Nirosha Hewa Wellalage was awarded an ICGN scholarship to attend the conference in New York. Nirosha is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at the University of Waikato Management School in New Zealand. She holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Waikato and her thesis was on corporate governance of Sri Lanka. Nirosha is an active researcher and has published her findings in several international refereed journals. Kumudini and Nirosha are both past pupils of Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo.