Intrepid Travel, the world’s largest adventure travel company and a leader in responsible small group adventures recently announced the appointment of Anu (Anuruddha) Karunatilaka as its new Chief Technology Officer to lead the Australian headquartered company’s digital transformation strategy.
The company’s previous chief information officer role has been revamped and restructured, incorporating diverse learnings from Covid-19, to better reflect the company’s goals of capturing and delivering a seamless digital experience, improving resilience and relevancy, and aspiring to be the world’s first $1 billion adventure travel company.
Based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Anu will manage a global team and oversee the design, development, security, delivery, and management of technology across all functions of the business, ensuring that every process and decision taken is driven by a data-centered approach.
‘I look forward to working with the wider team to pave the way in implementing a well-defined, strong digital transformation strategy across borders and disciplines backed by rich data and insights to enable timely and optimum decision making in a fast-paced environment,’ said Anu.
‘We couldn’t be happier to have Anu leading our global technology team in his new role as the chief technology officer. His vast expertise and knowledge speak volumes and will be pivotal to go beyond than just customer convenience to attaining sustained brand intimacy and interaction,’ said Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton.
Anu will travel regularly to Melbourne and other offices, including London and Toronto. Anu moved to Melbourne for his higher education at Monash University one year into his degree at Moratuwa, joining Intrepid in 2007 as a senior solutions architect and later becoming a software development manager. His love for travel and technology kept growing heaps and bounds.
Anu returned to Sri Lanka in 2011 with an ambitious plan to set up a global centre of excellence for Intrepid in Colombo, by not just providing careers to the people but also contributing to the nation’s growth and talent pool. This is truly a success story of giving back to one’s home country. Anu’s most recent role was as managing director for Asia.
With a career stint spanning over 15 years at Intrepid, Anu was instrumental in consolidating all of the company’s joint venture companies into one technology platform and took the lead in creating the Intrepid’s main operating system.
He was responsible for the rapid growth and expansion of Intrepid Colombo, which today has evolved into a center of excellence within Intrepid with a team of over 170 colleagues. Celebrating a decade of building the best travel company for the world, Intrepid Colombo was awarded the Great Place to Work Certification™ during May this year and was recently featured among 15 Best Workplaces for Women.
Intrepid is a certified Benefit Corporation (B Corp), independently verified to have the highest environmental, social and governance standards, balancing profit with purpose.
