Dilith Jayaweera

Dilith Susantha Jayaweera

Dilith Jayaweera
Born (1967-09-18) 18 September 1967
Galle, Sri Lanka
Nationality Sri Lanka Sri Lankan
Education St. Aloysius' College, Galle
University of Colombo
Occupation

Chairman - George Steuart Group

Director - Citrus Leisure PLC, Colombo Land and Development PLC

Jt. Managing Director - Triad (Pvt) Ltd

Dilith Jayaweera (Born 18 September 1967) is a Sri Lankan corporate leader and a prominent figure in the country’s advertising industry. In 2011, he was named by the LMD Magazine [1] as one of the ten ‘Business People of the Year’.[2]

Career

A lawyer by profession, Dilith Jayaweera set up Triad Advertising (Pvt) Limited in 1993, in partnership with Varuni Amunugama Fernando, whom he had met at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo.[3] Triad is the most awarded indigenous advertising agency in Sri Lanka.[4]

Jayaweera’s agency is known to have been behind several high profile campaigns including ‘Api Wenuwen Api’[5] created on behalf of the Sri Lanka forces to raise the profile of the army, navy and air force during the latter stages of the Sri Lankan civil war against the LTTE.

The company has been heavily diversified and Jayaweera has set up over 20 subsidiaries. Among them is a national television channel Derana. With the aim of building a modern conglomerate, Jayaweera has recently entered industries such as travel and leisure, pharmaceuticals, property and manufacturing.

Post-war investments

In the post-war Sri Lankan economy, Jayaweera has risen to prominence as an aggressive investor[6][7][8][9] – his investment arm Divasa Equity is a majority shareholder in public listed companies such as Citrus Leisure PLC[10] and Colombo Land and Development PLC,[11] and in October 2011 took over the 176-year-old George Steuart Group,[12] Sri Lanka’s oldest mercantile establishment and a successful diversified conglomerate. He sits on the Boards of several companies including Citrus Leisure PLC, Colombo Land PLC, Pan Asian Power PLC and Triad (Pvt) Ltd, and is Chairman of the George Steuart Group of Companies.

Controversy

The District Judge of Colombo in 2011 issued an enjoining order against Telshan Network of Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s brother Shan Wickremesinghe and one of his directors preventing them from defaming Dilith Jayaweera on a local radio channel Isira Radio. Order was given consequent to action filed by Dilith Jayaweera against Shan Wickremesinghe and his co-host for defamatory comments made on a radio show.[13] Jayaweera also sent the BBC Sinhala service a letter of demand for defamation for carrying a story on the subject.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "LMD Top Ten Businesspeople_Dilith Jayaweera".
  2. ↑ "LMD Top 10 Businesspeople 2011".
  3. ↑ "History of Triad Advertising".
  4. ↑ "The Bottomline 18 March 2009".
  5. ↑ "Ministry of Defence Api Wenuwen Api".
  6. ↑ "Financial Times 7th June 2011 Dial Dilith for a Deal".
  7. ↑ "Echelon Magazine January 2013 Dilith shrugs off mafia controversy".
  8. ↑ "Business Today December 2012 Cover Story".
  9. ↑ "Ceylon Today 27 October 2013 Difficult to be financially successful without making enemies".
  10. ↑ "Financial Times 18 Oct 2011".
  11. ↑ "Daily FT 21 May 2011".
  12. ↑ "Financial Times 12 Sept 2011".
  13. ↑ "Financial Times 17 Nov 2011".
  14. ↑ "Financial Times". Retrieved 2011-11-15.

External links


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