Ceylinco Life hosted the sixth installation ceremony of its Toastmasters Club recently, at which a new executive committee was appointed and new members were welcomed.
Ceylinco Life Chairman Mr. R. Renganathan was the Chief Guest at this ceremony held at the Ceylinco Life Auditorium. District and Divisional Level officers of the Toastmasters fraternity were also present.
The new President of the Club is Shyamala Devi Arulanandam, Senior Assistant Manager – Customer Relations. The new executive committee also comprises Kamal Rupasiri as Vice President, Education; Deshapriya Vipulatheja as Vice President, Membership; Dileepa Delwala as Vice President, Public Relations; Suneth Samarakoon as Treasurer; Keshani Samarakoon as Secretary; and Nalin Dhanushka as Sergeant-at-Arms.
Ceylinco Life Toastmasters Club has 43 members at present, and is the home club of the Toastmasters Area A3 Director – Chulaka Kumarasinghe who was also the club’s President last year. As a testament to its prowess in communication and leadership, the club has been accorded ‘Distinguished’ status every year since its inception.
The club has produced Toastmasters who have won at Area level speech contests, an achievement that surpasses that of many other clubs. The club was awarded the prestigious ‘Golden Gavel’ by Toastmasters International, the highest accolade any Toastmasters Club could win, in 2015, under the presidency of Late Toastmaster, Chandana Herath.
Additionally, three Ceylinco Life Toastmasters, Shyamala Arulanandam, the current President of the club, Chulaka Kumarasinghe, the immediate past President of the club, and Gayan Lakmal Alwis have won Division Level Speech and Evaluation contests, a commendable feat for a relatively new club.
Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development with a membership of more than 358,000. Members improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending one of the 16,800 clubs in 143 countries that make up the global network of meeting locations. By regularly giving speeches, gaining feedback, leading teams and guiding others to achieve their goals in a supportive atmosphere, leaders emerge from the Toastmasters programme.
Since its founding in October 1924, the organisation has helped more than four million men and women give presentations with poise and confidence. The communication and leadership projects designed by Toastmasters International are devoted to the development of the art of speaking, listening and critical thinking among its members.
The Ceylinco Life Toastmasters Club was chartered in September 2014 with a membership of 25 employees, and has been part of all events hosted thereafter by Toastmasters International in Sri Lanka.
The market leader in Sri Lanka’s life insurance industry for 15 of the 31 years it has been in operation, Ceylinco Life has close to a million lives covered by active policies and is acknowledged as a benchmark in the local insurance industry for innovation, product research and development, customer service, professional development and corporate social responsibility.
Ceylinco Life was adjudged Sri Lanka’s most valuable life insurance brand by Brand Finance in 2019, ranked among the 10 ‘Most Admired Companies’ in the country by the ICCSL this year, named the Best Life Insurer in Sri Lanka for the fifth consecutive year in 2018 by World Finance, and has also been declared the most popular life insurance company in the country for the past 13 years by SLIM-Nielsen.