Skanda steps down after long stint

S. Skandakumar, Group Chairman of George Steuart & Co, is retiring and will be succeeded by J. M. Wimalagooneratne, currently Group Deputy Chairman and Managing Director, officials said.

Skandakumar said he was retiring after reaching the age of 60 years having served the company for 38 years. “I joined in the 1970’s as a executive essentially to get involved in plantation management but a few months later the nationalisation of estates took place,” he recalled, adding that the company, then known as the best plantation management organisation, had to struggle to recover from this blow.

The next tough call at George Steuart was when the Central Bank bombing occurred in 1996, completely destroying the George Steuart head office, across the road from the Central Bank. “It was tough but we recovered,” he recalled. The new chairman Wimalagooneratne has worked at the company for the past 30 years. The other directors are D. N. Daluwatte, D P Kanagaratnam, K. Neelakandan and G. E. S. Dirckze, a former chairman.

George Steuart is Sri Lanka’s oldest company and one of the oldest existing companies in the world. It was founded in 1835.