Institute of Management of Sri Lanka completes 25 years of service

Wednesday, 21 September 2011 00:55 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Institute of Management of Sri Lanka (IMSL) the apex national body in the field of professional management in Sri Lanka, dedicated to promoting professional management in the country, last month completed 25 years of service to the country.

IMSL was inaugurated on 31 July 1986 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament No. 67 on 17th December 1988. It is the first Management Association in Sri Lanka to be incorporated by an Act of Parliament. Today, IMSL is a full member of the Asian Association of Management Organisations (AAMO), as Sri Lanka’s sole representative in AAMO.

IMSL is the successor to the Sri Lanka Management Association, which was inaugurated on 5 May 1978 with Mallory E. Wijesinghe and the late Cyril S. Chinniah as President and Secretary respectively.

The founder members of the institute are Mallory E. Wijesinghe (President), Brig. C P Caldera (Vice President), R.G.G.O. Gunasekera (Vice President), Lalith Godamune (Vice President), C.S. Chinniah (Hony. Secretary), P.S. Mahawatte (Hony. Treasurer) and Ramola Sivasundaram (Hony. Asst. Secretary), together with S.T. Arulampalam, S.G. Premakanthan, P.A. Silva, J.V. Thamber, Mansoor Ghouse, K.H.S. Gunatilake, Brig. G.R. Jayasinghe, Dr. D.S. Bandarage and Sunil G. Wijesinha

Mallory Wijesinghe, Mansoor Ghouse, Mahendra Amarasuriya, Rohini Nanayakkara and Col.Faiz-Ur-Rahman have served as Presidents of the institute before the current President Anver Dole took over the leadership role in 2008.

He is supported by a council of 23 members that comprises Dr. Sarath Kodtuwakku, Patrick Rodrigo, Thiru Sayandhan and Raj Subramaniam as Vice Presidents and Manu Tissera Gunasekera and Damitha Kariyawasam serving as the Secretary and Treasurer respectively. IMSL membership is open to all those in the profession of management, be it practising managers, academics, consultants, trainers, or students – subject to applications being evaluated and approved by the Admission and Ethical Practices Committee and the Council of the institute. At present the IMSL has approximately 700 members. IMSL was honoured with the ‘Special Award for Contribution to Management’ by the CMO Singapore at its annual awards ceremony held in July last year. In addition to the biennial National Management Conference that IMSL organises, it has been conducting public seminars on interesting topics with reputed guest speakers every other month or once a quarter. These evening programmes, conducted in collaboration with the SLFI, at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, has always drawn a crowd of interested participants who gain much by sharing the experiences of speakers from diverse fields.

IMSL aims to play a catalytic role in inspiring managers to be leaders by providing them a forum for sharing knowledge and best practices while promoting the highest standards of professional conduct and ethical values amongst members.

Its latest venture is to conduct an Advanced Diploma Course in Business and Management to cater to the needs of young managers who aspire to go up the corporate ladder and IMSL’s Subcommittee on Education, headed by Dr. Sarath Kodituwakku and assisted by Buddhini Gankanda, is planning to launch this programme by the end of this year.