Hans appointed to JKH board

Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya has been appointed to the board of directors of John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) with effect from October 4, 2016, as an independent non-executive director.

Dr. Wijayasuriya has functioned as the Group Chief Executive of Dialog Axiata PLC since 1997. Over the course of Dr. Wijayasuriya’s tenure of leadership, Dialog progressed from being the fourth entrant to Sri Lanka’s mobile market to become the country’s leading multi-play connectivity provider, and one of the highest valued companies on the Colombo Stock Exchange.

Since early 2016, Dr.Wijayasuriya has also functioned as the Regional CEO for South Asia of Axiata Group, heading the operations and investment interests of the Axiata Group across Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India.
During the period of 2012 to 2014 Dr. Wijayasuriya functioned as the Founding of CEO of Axiata Digital Services—the group-wide digital services business of the Axiata Group. He serves on the boards of several regional operating companies of the Axiata Group and also on the board of Axiata Digital Services and several of its digital ventures. In the year 2016, Dr.Wijayasuriya was honoured by the GSM Associates as the first recipient of the ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Asian Mobile Industry’ award.
He is a past Chairman of GSM Asia Pacific—the regional interest group of the GSM Association and also serves on the board of the TM Forum.
Dr.Wijayasuriya was also named ‘Sri Lankan of the Year’ by Sri Lanka’s premier business journal LMD in 2008.
He graduated from the University of Cambridge, UK in 1989. He subsequently obtained his PhD in digital mobile communication s from the University of Bristol, UK in 1994. A chartered engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Engineering Technology, UK, Dr.Wijayasuriya also holds an MBA from the University of Warwick, UK.

Dr.Wijayasuriya has published widely on the subject of digital mobile communication including research papers in publications  of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) USA, Royal Society and the Institute of Engineering Technology (IET)UK.

The other board members of JKH as of now are: Susantha Ratnayake (Chairman), Ajit Gunewardene (Deputy Chairman), Ronnie Peiris (group finance director), Ashroff Omar (non executive director) and independent non-executive directors Amal Cabraal, Nihal Fonseka, Premila Perera.