photo essay

By shirajiv sirimane

The black tie Asia Pacific Entre-preneurship Awards 2013 spon-sored by NDB concluded with pomp and glory at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo on Sunday night with Graetian Gunawardhana, Chairman and Managing Director of Hands Group of Companies car-rying away the Entrepreneur of the Year crown.

Dulith Herath, Chairman of Kapruka.com (Pvt) Ltd, was adjudged APEA Young Entrepre-neur of 2013 while Hanif Yusoof,Group CEO & Director of Expolanka Holdings PLC, was the winner of the APEA Special Achievement Award 2013 Sri Lanka.

Another 24 leading Sri Lankan business leaders too received the “Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards in different categories.

APEA is a regional recognition programme for outstanding entre-preneurs across Asia.

It is also a platform for Asian business leaders and entrepre-neurs to network, share informa-tion and form lifetime acquaint-ances and alliances.

The awards were presented in 12 countries throughout Asia. In rec-ognition of the national impor-tance of this event, ANCL Group, newspapers Daily News and Sun-day Observer, along with ART TV joined as media partners and KPMG as the Audit Partner. Cin-namon Grand Colombo was the hotel partner for the event.

All Sri Lankan winners of APEA 2013 will be invited to the annual Asia Entrepreneur Forum in 2013 which is a gathering of 1,000 APEA winning Entrepreneurs of Asia, a network of Asia’s most powerful

Entrepreneurs. The awards were presented by Chief Guest Neomal Perera, Deputy Minister of Exter-nal Affairs, Sri Lanka, Guest of honour, Azmi Zainuddin, High Commissioner of Malaysia in Sri Lanka, William Ng, President of Enterprise Asia, Harin Malwatte, Secretary General/CEO of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Mrs. Dushy Jayaweera, President of Sri Lanka Malaysia Business Council, Kevin de Silva, Chairman of the Organising Committee, Tilak N Gunawardene, Co-Chair of the Organising Committee, Hemaka Amarasuriya, Chairman, NDB, Russell de Mel, CEO of NDB Bank, Tan Sri Ahmad Fuzi Zak from Malaysia,Lieutenant General Sudhir Sharma from India and Ananda Rajapakse, Sri Lanka Country Director and Ex-co Mem-ber of Enterprise Asia

Pictures by Nissanka Wijeratne

apea 2013 outstanding entrepreneurship awards (12)

Anton Godfrey, Group Chief Execu-tive Officer of AGXINTL _ Australia, Sri Lanka, India.

Wettinger Jinadasa, Chairman/ of Andaradeniya Estate (Pvt) Ltd.

Sathis Abeywickrama, Managing Director, Flexi Print (Pvt) Ltd.

Saman Upasena, Proprietor, Galpa-ditenne Tea Factory

Prabhash Subasinghe, Managing Director/CEO of Global Rubber Indus-tries (Pvt) Ltd.

Joel Selvanayagam, Chairman of Hovael Construction (Pvt) Ltd.

K D A Weerasinghe, Chairman/Managing Director of K D A Weerasin-ghe and Company (Pvt) Ltd.

Dr. Lawrence Perera, Chairman/CEO of Micro Cars Limited

Channa Palansuriya, Chairman of Orit Trading Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.

Lalith Liyanage, Managing Director of RTS Holdings, Avissawella Tea Fac-tory

Jaffar Abdul Sattar, Managing Director of Sumithra Garments (Pte) Ltd.

Dasantha Fonseka, Chief Executive Officer, Vision Care Optical Services (Pvt) Ltd.

apea 2013 Most promising entrepreneurship awards (7)

Nihal Seneviratne Epa, Chairman, Asset Radio Broadcasting (Pvt) Ltd.

Kaushal Rajapaksa, Proprietor, Kal-hari Enterprises

Thushan Upasena, Proprietor, New Kandagastenna Tea Factory

TIppalagama Premalal, Chairman Pubudu Engineering(Pvt) Ltd.

Thushantha Jayasundara, Managing Director, Roof Mart (Pvt) Ltd

M Saleem Mohamed, Chairman/Managing Director, S S Consultants and Corporate Secretaries (Pvt) Ltd.

Gamini Gunasekera, Managing Director, Union Chemicals Lanka PLC apea 2013 emerging entrepre-neurship awards (5)

Jude Rodrigo, Proprietor, Bopitiya Auto Enterprises

G. S. Fernando, Managing Director, Dhanusha Marine Lanka Pvt Ltd.

Lallan Perera, Managing Director, Lallans Sports Good Manufacturers (Pvt) Ltd.

Nilan Wickramasinghe, Managing Director, Lion Royal (Pvt) Ltd.

Sharanyan Sharma, CEO/Founder, Shree Vengadeshwaraa Networks Pvt Ltd of Vavuniya.

APEA Entrepreneur of the Year 2013:Graetian Gunawardhana,

Chairman / Managing Director, Hands Group of Companies

APEA Special Achievement Award 2013:Hanif Yusoof, Group CEO / Director, Expolanka Holdings PLC

APEA Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013:Dulith Herath, Chairman, Kapruka.com (Pvt) Ltd.

aPea 2013 awards