Sriyantha Senaratne felicitated for 50 years of service to Rotary
View(s):
Sriyantha Senaratne (third from left) and wife Anthea (second from left) with Rotary officials at the felicitation
The Rotary Club of Colombo North felicitated Past President Sriyantha Senaratne for his 50 years of service to Rotary during the official visit of the Rotary District Governor, Ajith Weerasinghe. A plaque was presented by the District Governor and the President of the Club, Lucien Pereira.
Sriyantha joined the Rotary Club of Colombo North on December 1, 1970. However, his links with Rotary commenced in 1967 when he read an advertisement by Rotary International offering scholarships for Graduate work at any university outside Ceylon (as the country was known then).
He applied and was interviewed by a panel consisting of then District Governor J. Nilgiriya, Senator Thomas Amarasuriya and D. B. Ellepola. After a few interviews, he was chosen from Ceylon but had to go for a further interview at Madras, to compete with the Indian candidates. He still remembers the final question the panel asked – “If you are chosen where would you go?” He immediately replied “to the United States” because it was the most technologically advanced country in the world at that time and was planning to send a man to the moon.
Sriyantha succeeded; it was the first time a Ceylonese student was chosen from the Rotary District 322 (which consisted of Rotary clubs in Sri Lanka and parts of India). Rotary informed him that the Rotary Foundation would pay for everything but that every week he had to address Rotary clubs in the host district in the USA. Sriyantha decided to follow a course in business at Washington State University on the West Coast. That Rotary District straddled both USA clubs and Canadian clubs in the province of British Columbia. So throughout the year in the USA every week he addressed one or two, sometimes even four Rotary Clubs, Chambers and other organisations both in the U.S. and Canada. He also attended the District Convention as one of the chief speakers. On completion, Sriyantha went to the Rotary International headquarters at Evanston, Illinois and the General Secretary hosted him for lunch together with the other staff members. Before his arrival back in Ceylon, he didn’t fail to watch Neil Armstrong land on the moon live on TV.
After following law at the Peradeniya university, Sriyantha worked at Messrs. Julius & Creasy from 1960. He left Julius & Creasy and joined Mackwoods Group to work under the then Chairman, N.S.O. Mendis who had just acquired Walker Sons & Co. He was one of four on the management team and joined as a lawyer overlooking Walkers sometime in March 1970.
After a few months, a senior engineer George Wallis and M.T.A Furkhan, the Chief Financial Officer of Walker Sons met him and said that they had learnt that he was a Rotary scholar. Sriyantha told them he was the first to receive an Ambassadorial scholarship for Sri Lanka. They were Charter members of the Rotary Club of Colombo North and requested him to address the Club meeting at the then Taprobane Hotel, which he did.
Thereafter, they invited Sriyantha for further meetings and, on the 1st of December 1970, he was inducted as a member of the Rotary Club of Colombo North. Klaus Demes Willers (Head of DIMO) was the President and Harold Pieris (later Editor of the Ceylon and Sunday Observer) was the Secretary at that time. In 1972/73 Harold Pieris became the President and Sriyantha was appointed Secretary.
In 1973 Harold Pieris and Alagan Kadirgamar of the Colombo YMCA joined together to start the Inter school Shakespeare Drama Competition. Sriyantha was the secretary of the first joint organizing committee. To-date he has been a member of the Inter school Shakespeare Drama Competition organizing committee and, for a period of about five years in the 90’s, was the Chairman of the joint organizing committee.
Sriyantha was Vice President of the club in 1975/76 and in 1976/77 was appointed its President. Key accomplishments during this period was the donation of cardio thoracic equipment to hospitals, 2500 apples to orphanages (a luxury at that time) and equipment and funds for Preethipura Home, all through the assistance of international Rotary Clubs. These were in addition to the regular projects of the club, such as the Annual Shakespeare Drama, art exhibition, oratorical competition and assistance to the Home of Compassion in Mahawatte
In 2008/09, Sriyantha was once again called upon to be President of the Rotary Club of Colombo North. Apart from their regular projects such as Shakespeare Drama, the club helped children to undergo heart operations and created the Speechcraftprogramme for Interactors.
Throughout, Sriyantha has chaired and served various committees of the Club and organised many projects. Currently he is the Vice President of the Club and in the preceding year was Chair for Membership Development.
In his professional career, he started in the field of law and after ten years moved over to tourism development – in 1971 he was appointed as Managing Director of Walkers Tours Ltd. He commenced Habarana Village, the first cottage style development in hotels, and from 1975 to 1979 was a Director of John Keells Holdings and Managing Director of Walkers Tours Limited. From 1979 to 1986 he was Managing Director Gemini Tours and Gemini Management Services Ltd. and completed Sigiriya Village Hotel. He was one of the first investors from Sri Lanka in the Maldives, managing Nasandhura Palace Hotel and Bolifushi Island Resort.
In 1986 he returned to the field of law as a Partner of Messrs D.L. & F. de Saram – Attorneys-at-Law and from September 2000 is the Founder and Precedent Partner of Simon & Associates – Attorneys-at-Law.
He is married to Anthea, also a Rotarian and member of the Rotary Club of Colombo North. An accomplished author, one of her books was short-listed for the Gratiaen Prize. She has been on the committee handling the Interschool Shakespeare Drama Competition and has been a great help in running the competition. They have two children; daughter Sonali, married to Dinesh Sellamuttu and they have a son, Akash (15 years). She is currently working in Myanmar. Their son Dimitri lives in the U.S. with two children Audrey -15 years and Isaac -12.