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| Sunday, 9 November 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Personality plus Ravi Mahendra : A passion for teaching
Family He is the only child of lawyer Nadarajah Mahendra and Pathma Mahendra. "The support and encouragement I receive from my parents is tremendous," said 26-year old Mahendra. School "I went to Wycherly International School from grade one till my London Advanced Level examinations. The subjects I offered are Economics, Business Studies, Accountancy and Maths. In addition to doing my studies, I was involved in a lot of extra-curricular activities such as sports and school societies. Most importantly, I never went for tution even during my Advanced Levels," he said. Scholarship "I was offered a scholarship by the Buckingham University, UK to pursue my higher studies, but my parents thought it was not the right time for me to go abroad and since I was very attached to them, I also agreed to it and do not have any regrets even now." CIMA Mahendra spoke to his father about all available career options and decided that the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) was the best. He started doing his CIMA exams at the age of 18. He received the CIMA World Prize in the first and second stages, consecutively scoring the overall highest aggregate. This record, he says, is yet to be broken. Within two years he completed all four stages of CIMA. He was also the first recipient of the Young CIMA Star Award given by the CIMA Sri Lanka Division. Career "I started working as an Audit Trainee at Price WaterhouseCoopers before moving to IE Technics as the Group Financial Controller. From IE Technics, I moved to Ayojana Fund as the financial controller, which post I held till I left in August 2002. "Though I was working full time, my passion was for teaching. Therefore, I found time to do some teaching at the Colombo Business School for CIMA students. After some time, there were problems and Sidath Dissanayake and I took over the operation and managed it while doing our own jobs, but after some time against every body's wish, I called it a day at Ayojana and started ICBS together with my friend Dissanayake. Being on my own is a challenge and I enjoy it." ICBS "Our main concern is to provide a quality education to all students who come to us be it for CIMA, Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), Masters in Business Administration (MBA) or Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA). Therefore, we limit the number of students per batch. "Our MBA programme is affiliated to the Warnborough University and we provide classroom-based training as well as text books and each programme has 40-45 students. "We get a highly qualified team of academically qualified lecturers to conduct the lectures for the MBA and BBA while CIMA and CIM lecturers are professionals in their respective fields. "In addition to these courses we also conduct training courses for corporates and there is a lot of potential to develop in this area too," Mahendra added. Dream "I want to bring a lot of well-known foreign universities to Sri Lanka one day. At present, they are rather reluctant to come to Sri Lanka and prefer India where they see much more potential. In my view, there is vast potential in the country, but this is not properly supported by the government at present." Vision "Good quality education in our country is presently expensive. I would like to make it affordable and would like to see ICBS as an institute providing good quality education not only to Sri Lankans, but to Asians as well in another 10 years." Advice "Give preference to family and friends and be yourself; do not copy others; and most importantly, do not forget your roots and be humble," Mahendra said. **** Fact File Name: Ravi Mahendra Age: 26 years School Attended: Wycherly Int'l School Present Position: CEO ICBS Business School |
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Hard work, support from parents, a balanced life style and reading are
the pillars of success for Chief Executive Officer of ICBS Business
School, Ravi Mahendra.
