Rasika Karunatilake currently leads the Sri Lanka captive Global In-house Center (GIC) for Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY) - the world's largest Foodservice company and manages digital strategy, platform, software engineering, quality assurance, tech operations and enablement services. Rasika has over 25 years experience in founding and building new ventures and developing high-performing teams while his career spans across enterprise, product, services and startup environments. Rasika joined Sysco as employee #1 and was responsible for executing a talent, brand and people strategy that helped the company grow from 4 associates to over 1000 highly skilled technology professionals.
Rasika's background is in program management and technology delivery. He was previously Country Manager and Head of Delivery for MonVia - a Silicon Valley based technology incubator - and spearheaded programs for Fortune 500 clients in the Banking, Telecommunication, Finance and Consumer Internet domains. Prior to this, he was Program Director at the London Stock Exchange group where he successfully led delivery and implementation of high-availability, mission-critical systems for the world's leading Stock Exchanges, Depositories, Securities Commissions, Brokerages and Clearing/Settlement firms.
Rasika has played an active role in championing and growing the technology sector across Universities and industry professionals. He was Head of the SLASSCOM Mobile CoE from 2012-2015 and a member of the Board of Directors from 2018-2020. He played a key role in launching the country's tech brand - 'Island of Ingenuity', founded and led the Innovation CoE, and was responsible for launching the annual SLASSCOM Ingenuity awards.
Rasika holds a first degree in Computer Science from the Manchester Metropolitan University, an MBA from the University of Hull and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).
Rohana Kumara, VP of Engineering at Sysco LABS, guides the engineering teams in building and transforming mission critical enterprise applications across the supply chain domain. He has over 20 years of experience engineering highly scalable microservices and cloud-based applications in the restaurant industry, capital markets, financial services, banking, and healthcare. Rohana has a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Moratuwa.
Nilupa Kiringoda, Senior Director – Delivery at Sysco LABS and a global software delivery specialist, has more than 16 years of experience in implementing product-based, mission critical solutions for global financial markets by leading large, cross-functional teams. He has experience in working with a diverse customer portfolio ranging from emerging markets in the Asian and African regions, to top-tier markets in the American and European regions and is passionate about driving large scale technology transformation initiatives and building high performing global technology teams.
Nilupa is a part of AmCham Board of Directors for 2021/2022 and a member of the SLASSCOM General Council for 2021/2022, leading and facilitating projects that benefit local industries, including IT. He holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Business Information Technology from Staffordshire University, UK and a master's degree in Business Systems from the University of Monash, Australia. He is also a Project Management Professional (PMP).
Asanga Nugawela, Senior Director – Delivery at Sysco LABS has over 15 years’ experience in leading all aspects of technical projects from start to completion and successful delivery to global clients. As the former Head of Product Development at Fortude, he pioneered Agile practices for product development and introduced Lean Startup thinking to the business.
Asanga possesses an MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management and a B.Eng. (Hons.) in Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering from Monash University, Australia. He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) and a SAFe Agilist.
Nirmal Kumarasiri, Director – Delivery at Sysco LABS has over 15 years of experience in the IT industry working across multiple disciplines and roles. He worked as the Head of Division for the Global Systems Support division of LSEG technology before joining Sysco LABS as Director - Operations in 2016. Both as a systems engineer and a leader, Nirmal has been involved with setting up new global operations/engineering teams throughout his career.
Nirmal has a BSc in Business Information Technology from Staffordshire University and an MBA from Postgraduate Institute of Management affiliated to the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
Rehan Anthonis is the Director, People Operations at Sysco LABS and has over 18 years of experience spanning across multiple industries and has played multiple leadership roles across Human Resources including Talent, Organizational Development and Business Partnership. Prior to Sysco LABS, he was Associate Director Human Resources at Fonterra where he led Human Resources & Administration.
Rehan holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Business Administration & Human Resource Management from University of Keele (UK). He holds a supplementary certification in Psychology from the same university.
Kushani Kalpage is the Director, Marketing at Sysco LABS and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry and has played multiple leadership roles in the Marketing arena. She played a key role in rebranding Sysco LABS and positioning it as one of the best tech companies in Sri Lanka.
Kushani is currently a Board Member/Director of Diversity Collective Lanka (DCLK). She joined DCLK to support their goals in creating a more inclusive environment for women in tech, and to encourage more women to join the tech industry.
Kushani holds a BSc in Information Systems with Business Management from the University of Westminster – UK, and an MBA from the Cardiff Metropolitan University – UK
Dharmalingam Tamilchelvan is the Associate Director – Finance at Sysco LABS and has over 18 years of experience in the field of finance management and has played multiple leadership roles across developing financial strategies, improving productivity in finance processes, financial reporting and managing stakeholders.
Prior to Sysco LABS, he was the Finance Manager cum Finance Consultant at PassAsia Pvt Ltd where he led management accounts reporting, providing financial consultancy to clients, managing budgets, managing statutory audits and tax reports and leading teams to excellence.
Dharmalingam Tamilchelvan holds a Bachelor's in Management (special) from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, an ACCA (UK) Affiliate, and a Diploma in Microfinance (DMF) from the University of Colombo. He is also a CGAP Certified Trainer.
Nishantha Hettiarachchi has over 20 years of experience in the tech industry, and has played multiple leadership roles across a number of business domains such as Banking, Health Insurance, Real-estate, Data & Records Management, Food Services, and Fashion. Prior to Sysco LABS, Nishantha served as an Associate Director - Technology at Virtusa, where for 18 years he led technology teams with 100+ members spanning multiple geographies. He is also passionate about developing the next generation of technology experts and has extensive experience in running programs to help encourage Architects, Technical Leads and Engineers further their skills. Nishantha holds a Bachelors of Information Technology from the University of Colombo.
Gavi Perera - Associate Director - Property and Security, is a property and security specialist with nearly 2 decades of experience in end-to-end facilities management including commercial property management, infrastructure maintenance, capital and operational budgeting, business continuity, F&B operations, access control & surveillance, and infrastructure project management. Prior to joining Sysco LABS, he managed all the facility operations for Millennium IT and London Stock Exchange Group.
Gavi is an expert at managing and maintaining facilities operations for large-scale Information & technology organizations that serve critical clients and require 24/7 availability. He holds a Master of Business Administration from Aldersgate College, Philippines.
Nadeera Herath is Sysco's Senior Director - IT for Asia Pacific Infrastructure Services. He has over 25 years of experience in the industry and as a member of Sysco’s Global IT Services team, Nadeera focuses on articulating regional needs while driving global strategy across APAC. Prior to joining Sysco LABS, he served in multiple regional and global roles for Motorola for over 10 years. Nadeera holds a Bachelor's in Information Systems and Accounting.
Eranda De Silva, Director - Talent Acquisition, has over 17 years of experience in global talent acquisition across multiple industries including Information Technology, Engineering, Manufacturing, FMCG, Banking, FinTech and Telecommunications. Over his professional career, Eranda has played a pivotal role in talent acquisition for companies including Randstad, Firstsource, Dialog, Virtusa, Millennium IT and London Stock Exchange Group.
Eranda is reputed for his smart talent acquisition strategies and he holds a Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Kingston University, UK, and a Master of Business Administration from EIPEL.
Ranil Weerasinghe, Associate Director - Quality Engineering (QE) at Sysco LABS has over 14 years of experience in Software Quality Engineering, Software Performance Engineering and Test Automation. He has played leading roles at global technology centers such as Pearson and Virtusa, and prior to joining Sysco LABS, Ranil led quality engineering at the Sri Lankan technology arm of Cambio.
Ranil has a BSc (Hons) in Computing and Information Systems from London Metropolitan University (UK) and an MBA from the University of Cardiff Metropolitan (UK). He also is a CIW (Certified Internet Webmaster) foundation-certified professional.
Shanthi Rajesh is the Director - Cybersecurity at Sysco LABS and Sysco’s Business Information Security Officer (BISO) for APAC, and she leads the Security Operations Center at Sysco LABS Sri Lanka. Shanthi has over 21 years of experience successfully spearheading IT security program initiatives for organizations like Fidelity, IBM, Wells Fargo, and Barclays in the banking sector. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in E & C Engineering, a Master's from Symbiosis and is currently pursuing a PhD from the University Grants Commission of India; her research focuses on innovative approaches to safeguarding sensitive information, aiming to address emerging challenges in the field.
