Dian gets re-elected to IBA Director Board

Dian Gomes has been elected as the Independent Director Board Member of the International Boxing Association (IBA), the supreme and most prestigious global association dedicated to boxing at the

elections held on 14 May at the Wow Hotel and Convention Center in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Three of the 10 elected Director Board Members of the International Boxing Association (IBA) hail from the continent of Asia. They are Dian Gomes (Sri Lanka), Yousef Al-Kazim (Qatar) and Zhou Jin Qiang (China) made it to the Magic Circle of 10, representing the Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC). 

ASBC President Pichai Chunhavajira expressed elation on the election of the three Asians saying: “We are proud of our representation in the IBA Board of Independent Directors. I am confident they will live up to the expectations of those who elected them.”

There were 155 countries who participated in the IBA Congress meant to select the President and 10 Independent Director board. The other directors voted in included five women, as stipulated by the IBA constitution. Globally 69 countries supported Dian to be re-elected to the top post in the International Boxing Federation. 

Recently at the Asian Boxing Confederation’s General Assembly held in Jordan, Dian was elected as the member of newly formed Board of Director of the Asian Boxing Confederation. Dian’s election to the international body was righteously based on the professional competency, leadership and global strategic ability to navigate the future of global boxing and most importantly on their integrity. 

Dian needs no special introduction as his name is synonymous with the renaissance of sport in the island. A former Royal College fly weight boxing champion and a former President of CIMA Sri Lankan Division, Dian has been a leading corporate personality for the better part of three decades.  

First as a Group Director of MAS Holdings then as Chairman of Hela Clothing, where he was instrumental promoting not only boxing but other sports and supporting rural athletes. He currently serves as the Honorary Consul of Georgia in Sri Lanka and on the Board of Nestle Lanka PLC.

Being the current President of Sri Lanka Boxing, he is also fondly known as the ‘Godfather’ of boxing in the country. Dian’s service in taking the nation’s boxing to the international arena and exceeding all expectations since then is truly a magnanimous effort. From getting Anuruddha Ratnayake to compete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after 40 years; and to get three boxers to win three medals at the Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia after a lapse of 68 years.

He became the first Sri Lankan to be appointed to the Commonwealth Advisory Board of Sports in 2014 and also the first Sri Lankan to be appointed to the Executive Committee of the Asian Boxing Federation in 2019. He has served in the world body first as a member of the Finance Commission, the marketing commission, the women’s commission and member of the Director Board. 

Dian has now been re-appointed as an Independent Directors of the world body, where he is the first Sri Lankan to represent the country for this prestigious world body and Asian body for the second consecutive term; a leap for Sri Lanka in the Asian and World Policy making bodies of Boxing. Re-appointment of Dian for the International Boxing Association is a great victory for both Sri Lanka and Asian regions as well.