CSSL elects new executive council
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Council Members: Seated from L to R: Heshan Karunarathne (Treasurer),Dr. Ajantha Athukorale (Vice President), Damith Hettihewa (President), Dr. Parakum Pathirana (Secretary), Commodore Janaka Gunaseela (Assistant Secretary) Standing from L to R: S. Shageevan (Council Member), Rasantha Hettithanthrige (Assistant Treasurer), Prabath S. Wickramaratne (Past President, Council Member), Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe (Council Member), Indika De Zoysa ( Publication Secretary), Dr. Adeesha Wijayasiri (Council Member), Heminda Jayaweera (Student Counsellor)
The Annual General Meeting of the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) was held on 26th January 2021, and the new executive council for the year 2021 was duly elected. Mr. Damith Hettihewa, Managing Director, Nimbus Cloud Lanka Ltd, was elected as the President, whilst Dr. Ajantha Athukorale, Deputy Director, University of Colombo School of Computing, was elected as the Vice President.
The other elected members of the Executive Council are Secretary Dr. Parakum Pathirana (Head of Information Security and Compliance LOLC Group), Treasurer Mr. HeshanKarunarathne (Director Business Development CodeGen International Pvt Ltd), Assistant Secretary Commodore Janaka Gunaseela (Dean of the Faculty of Computing, General Sir John Kotelawala University), Assistant Treasurer Mr. Rasantha Hettithanthrige (Senior General Manager Engineering & Operations, Mobitel Pvt. Ltd), Student Counsellor Mr. HemindaJayaweera (COO, Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology), Publication Secretary Mr. Indika De Zoysa (Vice President, , Huawei Technologies), and Council Members Mr. Prabath S. Wickramaratne (Vice President / Head of Operations and Head of Information Technology , Deutsche Bank AG) Mr. S. Shageevan (CIO, Esoft Metro Campus), Dr. Prasad Samarasinghe (Managing Director Lanka Bell Pvt Ltd ) and Dr. AdeeshaWijayasiri (Lecturer, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa).
President CSSL Damith Hettihewa
Damith Hettihewa is a well-known industry personality with more than 25 years of ICT industry experience in both the public and private sectors. He has been a leading industry contributor as CEO of ICTA, FITIS, and Informatics. He served as the coordinator of the Presidential Taskforce on IT and held senior positions in Dialog and Mobitel, Presidential Taskforce in IT, having started his IT career as a System Engineer at Sampath Bank. Damith served in CSSL Executive Council since 2014 and held various positions, including Conference Chair, Assistant Secretary, Secretary, Vice President prior to being elected as the President in 2021. His career spans over two decades, having worked in leading organisations in Sri Lanka, including Sampath Bank, Dialog, Mobitel, etc.
CSSL President paid tribute to CSSL founder President Dr. R.B. Ekanayake. Damith Hettihewa outlined his vision for the Computer Society of Sri Lanka in 2021 and highlighted the priorities for the year under the three tier pillars of CSSL Vision, namely Value Creator, ICT Frontier, and Community voice. CSSL new president highlighted the urgent need for recognition of local professionals with Chartered IT Professional status and an early policy formation endeavor with necessary legal enactments in order to embrace frontier technologies such as AI, Big Data, Drones, Autonomous transportation etc., of Sri Lanka to leverage industry 4.0 opportunity for Sri Lanka to become a wealthy state.
The New CSSL president thanked Mr. Ajith Salgado, who first invited him to serve in the CSSL council in 2014, Mr. Prabath S. Wickramaratne for guiding CSSL to a new height with innovative strategies during his two-year tenure and outgoing Executive Committee members.
Prior to the new office bearer elections, outgoing President Mr. PrabathWickramartane presented the annual report 2019/20, which articulated several successful projects which were implemented.
CSSL is committed to fostering standards and professionalism amongst the country’s ICT professionals and adopted the CSSL Code of Conduct for Executive council members at the AGM 2020. CSSL’s code of conduct further strengthens the CSSL Code of Ethics framework, which was adopted by CSSL in 2017.
CSSL, established in 1976, is the apex body of ICT professionals in the country. It has been playing a pioneering role in promoting Information Technology and professionalism among those engaged in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and is the longest standing ICT body in the country. CSSL is a member of the South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC) and the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).
CSSL recently has been recognized with provisional signatory status of Seoul Accord, an internationally acclaimed degree accreditation programme through which we have been able to bring international standards on ICT related degrees to Sri Lanka.
The CSSL hosts the National IT Conference (NITC) annually, and the 38th edition was held in 2020 December as a virtual conference. CSSL National ICT Awards recognizes significant national contributions by ICT professionals annually and National Schools’ Software Competition (NSSC). These activities have collectively led to a surge in popularity for the CSSL and also for a renewed energy in driving large projects for building awareness and capacity. CSSL also provides networking opportunities as well as workshops and seminars that are organised on a regular basis.
The President and Executive council welcome professionals and students to actively engage in the new initiatives for 2021, which will be launched shortly and invite more and more ICT professionals to become a member of the prestigious professional body to further enrich their profession and careers.