Ceylinco Life has announced the appointment of top marketing professional Samitha Hemachandra as an Executive Director on the company’s board of directors and his concurrent promotion to the position of Chief Operating Officer with effect from 1st April 2025.
Mr Hemachandra joined Ceylinco Life as a Brand Manager in 2000 and held many senior management positions in the company prior to his appointment as a Director. He brings to the Board more than 25 years of experience in marketing and brand building in the life insurance industry, having also served for many years as the company’s General Manager – Marketing.
He has been part of the management team that achieved market leadership for Ceylinco Life in 2004 and maintained that leadership to this date, unbroken for 21 years, and has played a key role in Ceylinco Life being adjudged Sri Lanka’s Brand of the Year thrice and Service Brand of the Year six times, by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM).
A Fellow (FCIM) and Chartered Marketer of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) – UK, Mr Samitha Hemachandra has extensive hands-on experience in Brand Management, Customer Relationship Management, Marketing Management and Strategic Planning. He has been directly involved in designing, developing and implementing many integrated marketing campaigns for Ceylinco Life. Mr Hemachandra holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Western Sydney – Australia. He is a past Chairman of the Marketing and Sales Forum of the Insurance Association of Sri Lanka (IASL) and has been a member of the judging panel of the SLIM Brand Excellence awards for many years.
He is currently a Director of Ceylinco Healthcare Services Ltd., and a Non-executive Director of Citizens Development Business Finance PLC (CDB), which are subsidiary and associate companies of Ceylinco Life.
Voted the Peoples Life Insurance Service Provider of the Year for the 19th consecutive year in 2025, Ceylinco Life was adjudged Sri Lanka’s Brand of the Year in 2022 and 2023 and was named one of the 10 Most Admired Companies in Sri Lanka in 2023 by the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). The Ceylinco Life brand and was also ranked the ‘Most Valuable Insurance Brand in Sri Lanka’ across both life and general insurance categories in 2023 by Brand Finance.
Ceylinco Life has been the country’s leading life insurer for 21 of the 37 years it has been in existence and provides innovative life insurance solutions which offer protection while de-risking the goals and ambitions of the Company’s policyholders.
