Jehan Perinpanayagam CEO of Infomate and Vice President John Keells Holdings was appointed the Chairman, Member Network Panel of ACCA Sri Lanka for the year 2022/ 2023, at the recently held Annual General Meeting at the Hilton Colombo Residencies.
Jehan counts over 25 years of experience including 17 years in the IT/ BPM industry and is a pioneer in the BPM industry with expertise in ERP systems, automation, process excellence, managing large teams and in international partnerships. Jehan has been instrumental in pioneering the country’s first ever rural BPO and was also closely involved in the significant growth of Infomate Pvt Limited, from its early days as the country’s first shared services to one of the leading BPMs in the country
He also serves as the Vice Chairman for the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM), the Sri Lanka Australia New Zealand Business Council and the Nordic Business Council. He is also a committee member of the Sri Lanka Canada Business Council.
In his acceptance speech, Jehan outlined his thoughts on how the member network panel could support ACCA’s vision and strengthen advocacy and make a positive difference to the accountancy profession, to the students, to society at large and the country. An area he emphasized was in sustainability and ESG, and the opportunity to play an even bigger role in helping transform local businesses to deliver a more equitable, green and inclusive future. As such, ACCA Sri Lanka would be looking at driving corporates to uniquely positioned themselves in adapting and utilizing good sustainability practices.
Jehan further emphasized the opportunity to make a contribution nationally, “today, more than ever before, we are facing a challenge of governance, of accountability and of prudent financial planning. We have in our midst some of the best, most well-versed finance professionals in the country who could be positive contributors in committees and forums, quietly influencing and advocating for the right course of action and we look forward to supporting Sri Lanka in this area “.
Jehan stressed on the importance of advocacy in schools and universities and on guiding the future talent gain the essential skills and ability to contribute positively to the country’s businesses. “We have just launched a student mentoring programme, where ACCA Sri Lanka is possibly the first in the region to launch such a program and we will work on expanding this to our entire student base”.
The executive committee for the year 2022/2023 included Rathnakala Kumaragurunathan, Director-Acuity Knowledge Partners as Vice Chairperson, along with Adrian Perera, CEO-Lanka Rating Agency, Chaaminda Kumarasiri, Chairman-H C P Consulting (Pvt)Ltd, Praveen Ruberu, Principle-Ernst & Young, Darshana Gunasekara, Group Finance Head- Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company PLC , Shehan Fernando, CEO-Alpha Business School, Prasenna Balachandran, Chief Internal Auditor- Laugfs Holdings, Navin Karunadasa Business Analyst-LSEG and Suyama Jayasinghe, CFO- Layer 7 Innovations Pvt Ltd.
ACCA Sri Lanka presented the annual report for the year 2021/2022 that celebrated many successes in spite of the challenges faced by all. These included several strategic MOU’s signed with CA Maldives, SLIIT, NSBM and CFA Sri Lanka, as well as onboarding two new Approved learning partners, namely Premier Partners as a Gold partner and Online Accounting Learning as a Silver partner.
Other noteworthy achievements comprised of organizing ACCA’s first ever virtual Prizewinners Awards Ceremony, rolling out the ACCA Financial hackathon targeting ACCA students and local corporates based on the theme of UNSDGs and in holding ACCA’S annual sustainability Reporting Awards for the 17the year.
Contributing towards diversity and inclusion, ACCA carried out a campaign portraying their members and employers on the theme “ACCA: A Pledge to generate gender equality across sectors”.
Supporting their students continue their studies uninterrupted by external forces, ACCA conducted webinar sessions on exam tips and techniques and on managing remote exams, whilst a range of initiatives were also introduced to support their members.
Given the current crises faced by the nation, ACCA this year will concentrate through their members, to drive integrity and ethics in business, helping in developing credible and resilient businesses that drive long-term and meaningful value