Srilal Miththapala, Director / Chief Executive Officer, Serendib Leisure Management Ltd, and a senior personality in the tourism industry, will be retiring after 10 years at the helm.
Being an electrical engineer by profession, Mr. Miththapala began his engineering career at Richard Peiris & Co Ltd, where he was the Chief Engineer of the large Arpico factory complex at Nawinna. After a short stint in the Middle East, he returned and joined Riverina Hotel as the General Manager in 1985.
“It was Prof. Furkhan, Chairman of the Confifi Group, who took the risk of taking an electrical engineer and appointing me as the general manager of what was then, Sri Lanka’s leading four star beach resort, Riverina Hotel. It was a very difficult period for me, as I did not have a hotelier background, but I worked hard and learnt the ropes,” Mr. Miththapala said in a press release adding that, he took the job as a “three year contract, as I was not sure whether I would like my new career away from engineering. This three year trial with the tourism industry became a 23 year association.”
Having moved up the Confifi hierarchy he took over the post of Director Operations and then overlooked the diversification of the group in the role of Director - Business Development.
Mr. Miththapala joined Serendib Leisure Management Ltd as the Chief Executive Officer in 1999, and spearheaded the development of the three Serendib hotel properties comprising Serendib Hotel-Bentota, Club Hotel Dolphin – Waikkal and Hotel Sigiriya.
Mr. Miththapala is currently the President, Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) and is also a Board Member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (SLITHM). |
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