Jury – 2021

Indika De Zoysa - Moderator and Juror

Indika De Zoysa is a seasoned, vibrant and result oriented professional with 27 years of rich experience covering Digital, ICT solution’s, marketing, innovation, development, integration and market development with prestigious organizations.

Indika is the Vice President at Huawei Technologies Lanka Co (Pvt) Ltd. In this role Indika is responsible for the Sri Lanka Huawei Enterprise business and provides leadership to the Enterprise business group. Prior to this role Indika was the Senior Consultant at ICT Agency of Sri Lanka. At ICTA Indika was responsible for providing leadership to its team of managers and staff to drive Country’s Vision of “Transforming Sri Lanka towards a Creative Knowledge Based Society through digitally empowered citizens”.

Indika worked at Intel Corporation as the country Business Manager – Sri Lanka for 15 years. During this period Indika was responsible for executing all Intel programs and drive sales of Intel products & ramping newer technologies. He also leveraged cross functional resources to build and drive visibility for the Intel brand in Sri Lanka. Apart from these core responsibilities Indika maintained relationships with the Sri Lankan Government and relevant authorities. Prior to Intel, Indika was working for Hemas Pharmaceuticals as a Product Manager.

Currently, Indika serves as a member of the Functional Committee on General Education of the Presidential Task Force and also a member of the Standing Committee on Accreditation & Quality Assurance for Higher education Sector in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, Indika is the Vice Chairman of ICT skills council of Sri Lanka, Vice Chairman of (FITIS) - Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka and a Council member of the Computer society of Sri Lanka.

Indika is a past student of Dharmaraja College Kandy and he was a sportsman during his school time. In school, Indika has represented Rugby, Hockey, Cricket, athletics and Table Tennis. For Rugby and Hockey Indika has won college Colours. Indika was a college prefect and deputy house captain as well. Currently Indika is involved in many positions in sports administration in different levels. Indika is qualified in Marketing from the Charted Institute of Marketing and MBA from SMC University - Switzerland. Currently Indika is reading for Doctor of Business Administration in university of Kelaniya.

Prof Rangika Halwathura - Chairman Grand Jury

Rangika is an eminent expert in the field of Engineering. He is specialized in sustainable material and design, Green technology, Construction Management, Structural Designing, Project Planning and Monitoring, Computer Aided Server Base Project planning and Monitoring, Forensic Engineering, BIM (Building Information Modeling).

He has patents for many products and has won many awards. He is currently working as a Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa. In addition, he consults government and private sector projects in the field of construction and education development.

Ruwan Amarasekera

With over Twenty Seven years of far ranging experience, Ruwan Amarasekara is a Professional with C level & Senior Executive level experience in ICT management providing expertise in General Management / Planning / Systems Implementation / Institutional Development for tech transformation of organizations in multiple industries while contributing to ICT industry activities and lecturing / supervising / coaching for the development of young ICT professionals.

He has been actively involved in the ICT industry activities and has rendered services to the development of ICT through the professional organizations he is involved in. Further he has contributed his expertise to the young ICT professionals as a visiting lecturer and research project supervisor with two of the local universities.

 He is an experienced Judge in many Local and International ICT Competitions such as Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards, InnoServe Awards of Taiwan, Bestweb.lk, NBQSA, e-Swabhimani etc. for almost 2 decades.

Ruwan Amarasekara has been a Chartered member of BCS and obtained his MBA from Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) of University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He has a Post graduate Diploma in Marketing and is an Associate Member of Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), UK. He is a Member of Project Management Institute (PMI) and a Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Finalist. He represents Sri Lanka at the Executive Committee of Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA). He is a Past Chairman of BCS the Chartered Institute for IT Sri Lanka Section.

Jayomi Lokuliyana

Jayomi has Co- founded Sri Lankas leading Digital Marketing Agency zMessenger and pioneering Adtech Company DigitalX in her 18 year Entrepreneurial journey. In 2019 she went on to create Sri Lanka’s first market place based pharmaceutical and health tech company My Med International.

Jayomi earned her Master of Business Administration from Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from Chartered Institute of Marketing -UK. Jayomi served on the Executive Committee’s of Chartered Institute of Marketing and Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing. Jayomi has also been a lecturer for marketing and has lectured at several leading marketing schools.

Jayomi was recognized as Campaign Asia Women to Watch 2020 and Ernest & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women Asia Pacific 2019 , Outstanding Women Entrepreneur (Gold) the Top 50 Professional and Career Women Awards – Sri Lanka and Maldives 2018 and Women Icons (Asia) Awards in Singapore.

She has been playing an active role in evangelizing entrepreneurship among youth and specially among women in Sri Lanka. Jayomi is a prominent mentor and speaker for youth who are aspiring to be entrepreneurs and for those who have already started their ventures.

Mr. Chandana Rodrigo

Mr. Chandana Rodrigo is a Special Grade Officer of Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) with over 30 years’ experience in the public service. He is now serving in the Ministry of Technology as a senior Additional Secretary (Development). He currently coordinates policy and development related functions of the entities under purview of the Ministry of Technology. He has been working on high level procurement and policy committees related to subject of technology.

Mr. Rodrigo has served in various positions at divisional, district, provincial and national levels in the public service. He started his career as an AGA/ Divisional Secretary and thereafter held positions of Assistant Director, Director, Assistant Secretary, Senior Assistant Secretary, Provincial Ministry Secretary, Additional Secretary, State Secretary and Secretary at various entities in the public service.

He has served in several key positions such as Health Secretary, Western Province, Additional Secretary to the Prime Minister, Additional Secretary and Secretary to the Ministry of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology. Having served in the position of General Manager/ COO, Ceylon Fertilizer Company Limited, he has gained corporate experience with a business entity.

Mr. Rodrigo has gained knowledge and skills in the fields of ICT, e-Governance, Management, Project Planning, Public Administration, HRD and Research and Development through participation in local and foreign trainings.

He holds a degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Moratuwa, and a master degree in Regional Development Planning & Management jointly from the University of Dortmund, Germany and the University of the Philippines – Diliman Campus. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colombo.

Dr. Roshan Hewapathirana

Roshan Hewapathirana is a Senior Lecturer in Medical and Health Informatics at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo. His research interests span health information systems, interoperability and cross-border information exchange, open source, and IOT in health care. Dr Hewapathirana received the medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, and completed a masters degree in Information Technology at the University of Moratuwa and a doctoral degree from the University of Oslo, Norway in Health Information Systems for his research on platform ecosystems and open source in the health domain.

He is also a visiting lecturer and a member of the Specialty Board in Biomedical Informatics, Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM), University of Colombo. Dr Hewapathirana is also a Fellow of the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health. Currently he is serving as the Hon. Treasures of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Sri Lanka Section and a member of the working council, Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN). He is also a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Roster of Experts on Digital Health and possessed experience in working in several countries in the capacity of a Digital Health consultant.

Hasith Yaggahavita

As the CTO and a member of the board, Hasith leads the engineering division of 99X Technology, an award-winning software engineering company. With 16 years of experiences, Hasith has worked across multiple disciplines as a catalyst for change including Agile, UX, Lean Startup, Digital Marketing, CSR, Incubators, etc. 

During 2015, Hasith's interest grew around innovation and creativity. Driven by his passion to change the way we educate youth, Hasith co-founded IgniterSpace, Sri Lanka’s first Makerspace chain for young innovators. He is also a Co-Founder of Maturify, a startup that offers a Modern Learning Management SaaS solution.

He is a graduate from the CSE department of University of Moratuwa and holds a Masters degree from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. Hasith is a Certified Scrum Master, Sun Certified Java Programmer and Microsoft Certified Application Developer too.

He is a founding member of StartupX Foundry, Colombo Camps Community. He has previously served ICTISC and SLASSCOM as a board member.

Vajira Kularathna

Vajira served EDB for 8+ years and prior to that she handled academic projects In University of Kelaniya, University of Colombo. She is reading for her Master’s in Business Management in Marketing and holds her Bachelors in Management and Information Technology.

She’s a Government officer passionate in assisting tech Start-ups and Regional development. She was handling the Financial Assistance scheme for graduate Start-ups during 2018-2020.

Under the Export Services Division of EDB she handled Electronics, Construction and Wellness Tourism. She was the EDB coordination point of the ICT/BPM and Wellness Tourism Strategy and initiated many product and market development programmes for the both industries. Vajira currently handling ICT/BPM sector at EDB and spearheading ICT Industry branding initiative, market development projects in EU, Middle East and Japanese markets.

Sampath Jayasundara

Sampath has possessed over 20 years of experience in the ICT and Education industries and currently serves as the CEO/Director of hSenid Business Solutions (Pvt) Ltd. Sampath is also the Co-founder/ Director of Pioneer Institute of Business and Technology (Pvt) Ltd; an institute offering IT and Business degree programs in affiliation with the University of Greenwich UK. He serves as a Director at SLASSCOM, the industry chamber for the IT/BPO industry. He is also a Director of CICRA Solutions (Pvt) Limited.

After his first degree & Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Science at the University of Colombo and then an MBA at Post Graduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, he served as a lecture panel member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) of Sri Lanka, he is a lecturer for Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL), Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), University of Sri Jayewardenepura and an external lecturer at the Finance and Management faculty of the University of Colombo for postgraduate studies.

Samantha Dhikkumburage

Samantha Dhikkumburage holds a BSc degree from University of Kelaniya and MBA from University of Moratuwa. He is an IT professional with 20 years’ experience in Designing, Implementing and Managing Computer Networks working for few private organizations and Network Operating Center of the University of Colombo. Currently works as the Senior Deputy Director - IT at BOI (Board Of Investments Sri Lanka). Hobbies are exploring new technologies, playing football and tracking nature trails. Goal is to become an excellent communicator.

Damith Hettihewa

Damith Hettihewa is the Managing Director of Nimbus Cloud Lanka Ltd and President of Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL). He is a chartered Engineer and counts 27 years’ experience in ICT and Telecommunication disciplines.

He has been a leading industry contributor as the CEO of Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Federation of Information Technology Industry (FITIS), and Informatics Pvt Ltd. Damith had short tenures at Uni Levers, Nestle Lanka Ltd and started his tech career at Sampath Bank as a Systems Engineer. He has held senior positions at Millennium IT, Dialog and Mobitel.

He was elected as the Chairman of the Governing Council of United Nations Social Economic and Commission’s APAC Centre for ICT Development (UNESCAP/APCICT) in 2018. He has served as a Board Member of ICTA, LGII, National Engineering Research and Development Centre, (NERD) and LK Domain Pvt Ltd. Damith is a member of the honorary advisory committee of the State ministry of Urban Development and has previously served as a member of the Knowledge Hub Steering Committee and Member/Coordinator IT of the Presidential Task Force of IT.

Damith graduated with a BSc (Eng.) degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from University Moratuwa and holds an MBA from University of Hull UK. He was adjudged as People's Leader of IT by Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) in 2017 and represented Sri Lanka in athletics at the World University Games in Sheffield UK in 1991. He is a nature lover and an activist.

Fadhil Bakeer Markar

Development practitioner with special interest in the field of Public and Social Policy. Professional experiences in Social Innovation, Digital Transformation, Youth Engagement & Policy, International Relations, Development Communications and Third Sector. Fadhil is a Muslim by faith, was educated at the prime Buddhist education institution in Sri Lanka, Ananda College, and speaks fluently in English, Sinhala and Tamil.

Currently, he is the Team Leader – Policy and Engagement at UNDP Sri Lanka, leading a dynamic and results-oriented team working on Policy, Partnerships, Innovation, Digital. Gender, Communications and Youth Engagement, and leads Sri Lanka's first Social Innovation Lab, Citra.

Dilini De Alwis

Dynamic, enthusiastic corporate professional with 25+ Years of experience in the field of Information Technology. Chief Operating Officer – Software Solutions and Services of John Keells Information Technology (Pvt.) Ltd, and AVP of John Keells Holdings PLC. She has exhibited her ability in driving Strategy and building high performance teams. Responsible for multiple portfolios on products and services and driving the business to achieve financial and non-financial KPIs.

She has established & managed practices in Intelligent Automation, Data Analytics & Application Modernization. JKIT’s very own award winning innovative aviation product suite evinta, bespoke software development and offshore development centres comes under her purview. She oversees a team of 100+ IT professionals and possesses many years of experience in working with local and international clients. She has nearly 3 years of working experience in the UK. Strong believer of keeping things simple and helping companies in the Digital Transformation Journey.

She began her career at Informatics (Pvt.) Ltd, prior to joining John Keells Computer Services (Pvt.) which was subsequently rebranded as John Keells Information Technology (Pvt.) Ltd.

KV Kuganathan

K V Kuganathan is a seasoned business, digital & IT strategist with extensive experience in Banking Finance, Insurance & Capital market sector. With over 23 years of experience, with 9+ years at C-level, Kugan is known for his innovative, creative and results driven leadership. He builds and transforms financial models into dynamic digital businesses with an acute focus on achieving exceptional results.

Kugan is currently working as Group Chief Information Officer at Janashakthi Group of Companies which includes BFSI sector. Additionally, Kugan is holding a number of IT related board positions, Chairman of British Computer Society for IT Charted Institute Sri Lanka Section and is on the Board of British Computer Society for IT Charted Institute UK. He was Serving as a Non-Executive Director for UPAY Payment Solution Ltd,

Prior to working at Janashakthi, whilst Heading Digital & IT strategy, Kugan transformed National Development Bank PLC as Sri Lankan’s Leading Mobility Banking solution providing the markets best customer experience for its loyal customers. Further to this, he initiated and lead the e-Banking division at Hatton National Bank PLC.

Kugan graduated with distinction in MSc in IT Consultancy as well as a degree in Computing and Information Systems.

With many prestigious accolades in recognition of his contribution to the IT industry, since 2011, Kugan has Judged NBQSA ICT Awards & Asia Pacific ICT Awards. Additionally, Kugan shares his enthusiasm for Digital Financial Infusion at many International conferences, focusing on Channel Optimization, where he is a renowned public speaker.

Abbas Kamrudeen

An ICT Professional, a Chartered Marketer and Postgraduate in the field of Management, Abbas counts for over two decades experience in Management primarily in the IT/BPO sector. With experience ranging from Regional Manager of "Capita Group UK" handling BPO operations of the BBC, He now Acts as the Managing Director of Debug Group of Companies, overlooking a number of Technology companies within the Group.

Abbas was Part of the Executive Committee of Asia Pacific ICT Alliance(APICTA), Served as a International judge at the APICTA awards in addition to Judging in various other National ICT competitions such as NBQSA, Bestweb Awards and Zero One Awards. He has also been appointed to the Director Board of LK domain Registry. He is a Director of Federation Chamber of Commerce, A Director of The ICT Skills Council of Sri Lanka and to date holds the position of Immediate Past Chairman & Director of FITIS (The Federation of ICT industry Sri Lanka.) He currently represents Sri Lanka at the General Assembly of SAARC CCI

Romani Rupasinghe

Romani is a technology savvy, decisive and results-oriented professional who brings over 12 years of IT experience to Swivel Group. She exhibits a vast amount of knowledge and exposure in managing highly-available, massively scalable, data-driven enterprise software solutions. Romani has been involved in overseeing software development activities, ensuring on-time delivery of business solutions along with client management, and offering architectural and business solutions.

She has demonstrated excellent skills in working with and managing offshore software development teams throughout her career. She is passionate about building high caliber technology teams, creating a strong engineering culture and fostering technical innovation.

She has prior work experience at Hsenid Business Solutions and Pearson Lanka. Currently Romani Works as Head of Engineering - SwivelTech - Swivel Group Pvt Ltd.

Sanjee Balasuriya

Sanjee has accumulated over 22 years of experience, in the field of Information Technology, mainly focusing his energies in the area of Information Security. He was immensely privileged to be one of the initial technical members in one of the most Sri Lankan leading and largest Internet Service Provider, which was launched back in 2001.

He strengthened his career in the field of Information Security by starting up with a leading bank in Sri Lanka in its IT security division. Then his professional obligations were directed to a significant Singapore IT Security consulting firm for mainly handling Singapore Government Data Centre IT systems Audits. During this tenure at the said organization, he was actively involved in key projects launched in Singapore by the government, which was initiated through Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). Through this international exposure he gained an immeasurable number of experiences working closely with Monetary Authority of Singapore for Compliance Regulatory Requirements, which need to comply for all financial institutions across Singapore (Technology Risk Management Guidelines)

Further, Sanjee served the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) as the Cyber Security Consultant since April 2012 to June 2021. In his recent role at Sri Lanka Air Force Headquarters, as a cybersecurity consultant, he provided the necessary guidance to design and operate a 24-hours cyber security operation center in order to facilitate the Ministry of Defense SOC activities. Sanjee’s priority was to integrate and conduct threat hunting, electronic warfare, cyber threat intelligence, and information operations, ensuring decision dominance and freedom of action for friendly forces in and through the cyber domain to mitigate any sophisticated advanced attacks from our adversaries. He rendered his specialized knowledge and service in Cyber Security to the Sri Lanka Air Force with utmost commitment and dedication during his tenure to the SLAF.

Sanjee was specialized in conducting enterprise security risk assessments, development of enterprise security architectures, strategies and defining business system requirements for design or procurement of security capabilities. Also, he was specialized in Network & System Security, Application & Network Penetration Testing with IT Audits. Recently, Sanjee was aggressively involved in research & development for Advance Persistence Threat, advanced evasion techniques and Malicious Code Analysis, working closely with the Global Advance Persistence Threats Groups.

Udana Wickremasinghe

Udana is a seasoned business cum digital executive who has provided effective stewardship for local and global organizations. He started his career in banking and moved into IT which helped him to gain significant experience in both digital and business arenas. He has over 24 years of experience, with 12+ at the C-level, in Sri Lanka, the UK and Australia. 

Currently he serves as a Director at Sri Lanka Tourism. Udana has picked up the CIO of the Year 2017 award from the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL).