New envoy to Washington

Jaliya Wickremasuriya

Jaliya Wickremasuriya, Sri Lanka's Consul General in Los Angeles, has been picked to be our next ambassador to Washington DC to succeed incumbent Bernard Goonatillake.

Mr Wickramasuriya became a trailblazer in North America in this decade with his highly successful promotion of Ceylon Royal tea headed by him in a market where the preferred drink of more than 90 percent of the people is coffee.

His Atlanta, Georgia based company sells a range of teas. Foreign Secretary Dr Palitha Kohona said yesterday that Mr. Wickramasuriya (48) would take up his new post no sooner the necessary formalities were completed like getting the approval of the Parliament High Posts Committee.