Ceylinco Insurance Board restructured
In a move to prepare the company for climbing greater heights,
Ceylinco Insurance has restructured its Board. Senior marketing
professional, J. Godwin Perera has been invited to take over as Chairman
and Ajith Gunewardena as Managing Director/CEO of Ceylinco Insurance
General and R. Renganathan as Managing Director/CEO of Ceylinco
Insurance Life.
Both Ajith Gunewardena and R. Renganathan will hold executive
authority and responsibility for steering Ceylinco Insurance towards a
new chapter.
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J. Godwin Perera |
The position of Deputy Chairman is no longer applicable following the
re-structuring, said a company spokesman.
A Director/Chief Consultant of Unitary Marketing Services and former
Head of Marketing at Bank of Ceylon, Godwin Perera has also been the
Group Marketing Consultant at Aitken Spence for over a decade where he
was actively involved in the Aitken Spence Group, with special emphasis
on the Group's leisure sector. He has also served as Director Corporate
Planning at Lanka Milk Foods. Godwin Perera is former President of the
Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) and holds a Post Graduate
Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing UK and is
also a Fellow - CIM. When SLIM introduced a new standard of marketing
excellence for the profession in 2009, he was one of the first to be
recognized and conferred with the title of Practising Marketer. He has
served as Chairman of the Panel of Judges at SLIM's Brand Excellence
Awards in 2008 and 2009. He was also a judge in 2008 at SLIM's Effies
Advertising Awards . He has been a highly respected and recognized
senior lecturer at SLIM for a considerable period of time, sharing his
expertise with students sitting for the Chartered Institute of Marketing
examinations.
Godwin Perera has authored a popular series of articles titled
Marketing for Non Marketers. He has also been a regular contributor to
several business journals.
Having served in key state appointed committees viz the steering
committee to make recommendations for the accelerated development of the
Bandaranaike International Airport to be a South Asian hub and the
Committee to make recommendations on steps to be taken by the Apparel
Industry to face the challenge of the termination of the Multi Fibre
Agreement which preceded the GSP Plus concession, Godwin Perera has also
been a member of a government appointed team of business leaders sent to
Japan and South Korea to study the concept of Trading Houses. He is an
old boy of Royal College, Colombo.
Ajith Gunawardena entered the Ceylinco Group through The Finance
Company, where he was able to pioneer the first ever leasing and project
financing division in Sri Lanka. He is also credited with the setting up
of a hire purchase scheme for consumer durable and import financing, a
first for finance companies in Sri Lanka. He pioneered the first ever
venture capital company to be set up in Sri Lanka. Having taken over as
Director in charge of the General Division of Ceylinco Insurance in
1987, Gunewardena introduced the concept of a direct sales force for the
insurance industry in Sri Lanka. On the Spot claim settlement'
introduced by him was a concept won the 'Innovation of the Year Award'
at the Asia Insurance Industry Awards in 2003. Under his
leadership,Ceylinco Insurance selected was one of the top four general
insurance companies in Asia in 2000.
It also clinched the Innovation of the Year Award at the 7th Asia
Insurance Industry Awards in 2006. Ceylinco Insurance is the only
company to win this award twice over. He was also the driving force
behind the first ever overseas joint venture for Ceylinco Insurance a
strategic alliance with Sagarmatha Insurance of Nepal.
The company was also extended to the Maldives. He has successfully
negotiated key joint ventures with Indian giants Larsen and Toubro and
the Aditya Birla Group; alliances that resulted in the Ultra Tech Cement
brand being available throughout Sri Lanka. Under these joint ventures,
the L & T Inforcity, the largest ever call centre in Asia, was
engendered.
A chartered accountant by profession, Rajkumar Renganathan joined
Ceylinco Consolidated in 1983 and set up the Life Division of Ceylinco
Insurance. Ceylinco Life has continued to maintain its leadership in the
Life insurance industry for the past six years and won the Asia
Insurance Review award for Corporate Social Responsibility in 2005.
Renganathan is also a member of the LIMRA India Sri Lanka Executive
Board and was invited to speak at the LOMAL/ LIMRA strategic issue
conference held in Kuala Lumpur. He has now ventured into the health
care sector providing affordable healthcare facilities to people of Sri
Lanka.
With the affiliation of the Washington Cancer Institute, he initially
set up a Diabetes Centre, Cancer Detection Centre and a state of the art
Cancer Treatment Centre.
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