Whose choice is the Sri Lankan CEO?

From LankaNewsWeb

The talk in the business circles in Sri Lanka these days is as to who has chosen Rakhitha Jayawardena as the CEO of SriLankan Airlines, which is at its deathbed, incurring billions of rupees of losses.

The airline’s head of human resources Pradeepa Kekulawala has distributed a letter among the staff about the pedigree of Jayawardena, which says the new CEO’s strategical expertise could help in the furtherance of the airline. He also describes Jayawardena as a veteran in aviation, and baptizes him as the founding father of in-flight duty free.

But, what is being reported to us is completely different.

Winning the "Inflight Personality of the year" at ARC
2014.

That is – in 1983, Jayawardena had pleaded with the then Air Lanka chairman Capt. Rakhitha Wickramanayake and got an appointment as its in-flight service manager. But, he was soon told to resign as the chairman and the director board were dissatisfied with his performance. Chairman Wickramanayake retired and went to live in England, where he opened a company, together with a person identified as David Sharp, named Duty Free Exports and Sales. After hearing that, Jayawardena kept telephoning Wickramanayake from the Maldives and requesting that he be recruited to the company. Feeling sorry for Jayawardena, what Wickramanayake did was to speak to Sarrer & Co., a firm of solicitors in England, and got visa for Jayawardena to come to that country.

Jayawardena arrived in the UK and was given a job at Duty Free Exports and Sales. He was sent to South Africa to discuss the contract for a particular business transaction. But, that transaction failed, and after about three months, Wickramanayake and his partner were not happy with Jayawardena’s performance. Sensing that, Jayawardena packed his belongings and fled to Oxford without telling his master. But, he forgot to change the address and cheques began to arrive at his old address. An inquiry found that the cheques were for the commissions he had gained dishonestly when making purchases for the company. Further, he had got the company’s cheques written to his name, and deposited the money in his personal account.

Top business circles in Colombo are questioning as to who had chosen such a corrupt person as the CEO of SriLankan Airlines. The ‘Yaha Paalana’ government has been able to find a corrupt person in the calibre of Jayawardena, who has succeeded the similar individuals Kapila Chandrasena and Nishantha Ranatunga as the CEO of the airline, they say.

More info on his previous employment:-

http://www.hkkingpowergroup.com/eng/about_operation_executive.html

Glowing report on his Career from Moodiereport.com:

http://www.moodiereport.com/document.php?c_id=40&doc_id=39869