Women who shone bright across many fields
Prof. Nadira Karunaweera
The main awards at the Top 50 Professional and Career Women Awards 2021 ceremony held on Tuesday at the Shangri-La hotel ballroom saw an interesting and diverse blend of fields and career paths being recognised.The Inspirational Professional Woman of the Year was awarded to Dr. Maheshi Ramasamy and Prof. Nadira Karunaweera while Aruni Goonetilleke received the Trail Blazer award, Randhula De Silva was named Game Changer of the Year and Dr. Vajira Chitrasena was presented the Judges Award.
The Top 50 Professional and Career Women Awards 2021 is presented by Women in Management (WIM), in collaboration with Women in Work, a partnership between International Finance Corporation (IFC)) and the Government of Australia.
With over 470 past award winners from both Sri Lanka and the Maldives, the 11th edition of the awards once again shone the spotlight on the significant impact and valuable contribution women have made in their respective fields. They honoured inspiring women from a plethora of fields such as medicine, hospitality, banking and finance, logistics and supply chains: entrepreneurship, and media and law, among others. Sri Lankan corporates that supported the growth and empowerment of women in the workplace were also awarded.
“This year’s judging panel consisted of 10 people, all with 10 different opinions that made the award selection that much more difficult,” said Founder/Chairperson of Women in Management (WIM), Dr Sulochana Segera speaking at the event adding that the fear of rejection shouldn’t stop anyone from doing anything, especially women.
Thaji Dias receiving award on behalf of Vajira Chitrasena
Head of Legal, Secretarial and Corporate Social Responsibility at John Keells Holdings Nadija Tambiah chaired the 2021 judging panel with Managing Director of Hayleys Agriculture Holdings Ltd, Jayanthi Dharmasena; Group MD/CEO of Dreamron Group of Companies, Kishu Gomes; Founding Editor and CEO of Daily FT, Nisthar Cassim; CEO of Clootrack Sri Lanka/Maldives & Pakistan, Rohantha Athukorala; Group Chief Customer Officer at Dialog Axiata PLC, Sandra De Zoysa; Strategic Marketing Professional, Sandya Salgado; CEO of KL.LK, Santosh Menon; Acting Australian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka Amanda Jewell; and Program Manager for Women in Work at IFC Sarah Twigg.
“In this room, we not only have the Top 50 women who will be receiving awards tonight but many other award winners of past years and many other inspiring leaders who have worked tirelessly without any recognition and I feel very privileged to be amongst you all. Australia places gender equality at the centre of our foreign policy, our economic diplomacy and our development agenda. We are one of the handful of countries to introduce the position of ambassador to women and girls. This is a reflection of Australia’s ongoing partnership with the world to ensure that gender equality is felt and achieved. We are delighted to be part of Sri Lanka to achieve these goals,” said Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, David Holly.
Pulani Ranasinghe
Randhula De Silva
Justice Aisha Muhammad
G. Sivajothi
Aruni Goonetilleke
Thilanka Abeywardena
SSP Darshika Kumari Pix by Eshan Fernando
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