Recipients of awards

ASANGA ABEYAGOONASEKERA

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera is a Young Global Leader (YGL) for the World Economic Forum. He is a Director of Insurance board of Sri Lanka (IBSL), the regulatory body of the insurance industry in Sri Lanka. He is a member of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS).

Asanga was the former Advisor to Minister of External Affairs and the Executive Director of the Premiere National think tank Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS). He was the Director General of BIDTI, government diplomatic training institute.

Asanga has nearly a decade experience in Government Administration Sector, he was the former Chairman of the Foreign Employment Agency and the Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation, and worked in the private sector at Sri Lanka Telecom and Hutchison. He was the youngest ever appointed for all three Government positions. He was a Director at Sri Lanka Ports Authority. He has served as a member at subcommittees for National Science Foundation and the Coordinating Secretariat for Science Technology and Innovation (COSTI).

He is the founding Curator of the Global Shapers Colombo Hub and the Country Chair of Global Dignity (globaldignity.org). And he is the Chairman and Founder of the “Diri Saviya” Foundation, a community-based non-governmental organization in Sri Lanka. He is the founder and Chairman of the Junior World Entrepreneurship Forum Sri Lanka Chapter.

Asanga holds a BSC in Computer Science and an MBA from Western Australia, and completed Executive Education from Harvard Kennedy School, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University, LKY School of Public Policy (Singapore) and ISB(Hyderabad). Asanga’s primary education was at S. Thomas’ Preparatory School and Ananda College Colombo.

Asanga was invited as a panellist for World Economic Forum Geneva and World Entrepreneurship Forum France. He was a panellist for many international conferences in USA, South Africa, South & Southeast Asia, China, Russia and Davos.

Asanga is an Alumnus of the US State Department IVLP and National Defense University in Washington.  He writes the monthly column for IPCS India “Dateline Colombo” and a regular commentator for many international media.  Asanga is a visiting lecturer in International Political Economy.

He is married to Kumudu with children and resides in Colombo.