IronOne Technologies Lakmini Wijesundera wins Special Award from National Chamber of Exporters

Lakmini Wijesundera, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of IronOne Technologies excelled yet again, being awarded the prestigious Special Award by the National Chamber of Exporters (NCE) of Sri Lanka in recognition of the unique entrepreneurship and achievement in the field of exports. The NCE Awards Ceremony was presided over by Ministers Eran Wickramaratne and Ravi Karunanayake, EDB Chairperson Indira Malwatte and other distinguished guests. 

This Special Award was a result of the nomination from the Women’s Chamber of Industry and 

Commerce (WCIC) headed by Chairperson Rifa Musthapha. Lakmini recently was the triple Gold Award winner including Entrepreneur of the Year, Exporter of the Year and Gold 

Award in the large category at the Entrepreneur Awards organised by the WCICSL. This achievement by her as CEO of IronOne Technologies, which is a heavily export oriented ICT software products and services company, sets a positive example to millions of aspiring women entrepreneurs in a male dominated industry. 

IronOne Technologies has been in business for 10 years with a market presence and clientele in over 15 countries and specialises in BoardPAC, a paperless secure Board Automation used by the top 100 companies. Deloitte, MayBank, Axiata Group, BOC, CSE, John Keells being some of them. 

Lakmini receiving the award from the NCE officials, Ramya Holdings Founder/Chairperson and NCE Sri Lanka Vice President Ramya Weerakoon, NCE Sri Lanka President Sarada De Silva and NCE Awards Committee Chairman Ramal Jayasinghe 

IronOne’s ATrad Online trading and broker back office platform, is the major operating platform for the Capital Markets stock brokering industry. ATrad platform has over 70% marketshare in the Colombo Stock Exchange with clientele such as Asia Securities, NDBS, Capital Trust, CT Smith, Taprobane Securities, First Capital and many others.

Lakmini expressed her thanks to Sarada De Silva President, Shiham Marikkar Secretary 

General/CEO, Management Committee and Secretariat of the National Chamber of Exporters of 

Sri Lanka and the Chairperson Rifa Musthapha and Board of Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC) for their encouragement and recognition of businesses headed by women in Sri Lanka. She further stated, “This recognition is a significant milestone for me, and also for many other women-led businesses, including those women who are considering embarking on business ventures. It is a clear sign that Sri Lanka is now an open and ready environment for women-led businesses to flourish.”

NCE is nationally known as the Voice of Exporters, and is the only private sector chamber exclusively serving Sri Lankan exporters. It plays a major role by supporting the efforts of the State in its endeavour in achieving export targets for economic development.

Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC) Chairperson Rifa Musthapha added, “It is a proud moment for us at Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce Sri Lanka to witness Lakmini Wijesundera being presented with the NCE of Sri Lanka’s national level Special Award of recognition of this woman-led entrepreneurial business through our nomination to the NCE awards.” 

Lakmini operates her business in the ICT sector which has few leaders of the gentler sex, and therefore is a pioneer in that respect too, breaking mindset barriers that may have existed in the past. The ICT sector is one of the fastest growing foreign income earners for the country and is now close to reaching Rs. 1 billion per annum and is in the top five foreign income earning sectors in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s ICT representative body SLASSCOM has a target for the ICT sector to exceed $ 5 billion foreign income in Sri Lanka within the next few years bringing the ICT sector’s foreign income ranking in Sri Lanka right to the top. 

It is also coupled with the 

1,000 ICT startups program, which is aimed at attracting entrepreneurs to take the plunge and start businesses. Funding sources such as Lanka Angel Network and such bodies are working on enabling funds for startups to get off the ground. 

DSI Samson Rubber Industries was the recipient of the NCE Award 2016 Best Sri Lankan Brand Exporter Award. Other winners of the day were Richard Peiris Group of Companies, Imperial 

Teas, Sanken Overseas Ltd., Noritake Lanka Porcelain, MAS Active Trading, Uva Halpewatte, Rileys, CL Synergy, Sam Gems, Imperial Spices, University of Peradeniya, Bank of Ceylon, HNB Bank, NDB Bank, Peoples Bank and Sampath Bank.