Online Mentors

ITpro Online Mentors are seasoned professionals from the industry and academia. You can reach them via e-mail for advice and guidance. Selected questions will also be published on the Career Advice Forum.

Online Mentors

Yasas Vishuddhi Abeywickrama - Director, Young IT Professionals Board, Australian Computer Society

FOCUS : Business Analysis, Career paths in IT, Social Networking, Advice for job seekers, Career Guidance e-mail Yasas

Yasas is a young and energetic IT professional who holds an honours degree in Computer Science, an international award winner from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) for the up and coming business leader of the future in 2003 in London. He is also an author on Business IT related areas and has published a book on Business Information Technology (BIT) titled A bit of BIT. With working experience in the USA, UK, Sri Lanka & Australia, Yasas has served clients such as British Telecom, Telstra, Siemens, and Guardian Insurance. His professional interests are in Project Management, Business Analysis and Consulting. Yasas is currently a Consultant for Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Prior to Accenture, Yasas has worked for Virtusa and the South Australian government. Yasas is the Director of the Young IT Professionals Board of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) for 2009 and is responsible for strategies, programs and activities for ACS members under 35 years. Prior to being appointed as an ACS Director and Congress member, Yasas has served the prestigious professional association in many capacities. Yasas loves to serve the IT industry and the society at large and has demonstrated this through his actions in many engagements over the years. He continues to do voluntary career counseling, mainly focusing on young professionals and students. Yasas maintains his blog at http://yasasva.blogspot.com.

Preethi Wanasinghe - Vice President, Business Process Excellence & Transformation, WNS Global Services

FOCUS: BPO e-mail Preethi

As the VP of Business Process Excellence, Preethi is responsible for developing and executing strategies to deliver value addition to customer and to facilitate business process excellence initiatives through innovation to ensure delivery of high quality, high value output in high-end finance & accounting and legal claims processes work for clients in the UK. He is also responsible for compliance to the ISO9001:2000 quality management system, and facilitating continuous improvement in processes using Six Sigma and Lean metrologies. He is also a visiting faculty member of the ICFAI University, the SLIM, and the Colombo University, where he lectures for e-MBA and other postgraduate programs. Preethi holds a B.Sc. (Engineering) Honors Degree in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Moratuwa and a Masters by research in microwave communication by the Nagoya University, Japan. He also holds a MBA from the University of Colombo where he won the gold medal for the best management student.

Prasath Nanayakkara - Global Head of Business Enablement, Virtusa

FOCUS: Software Development, Consulting, Systems Integration e-mail Prasath

Prasath Nanayakkara is the global head of business enablement for Virtusa Corporation. In this capacity, Prasath is responsible for leading all internal enterprise application strategy planning, systems development and integration as well as third party vendor management. Prior to this role, Prasath functioned as the Head of Virtusa Colombo - Advanced Technology Center delivery operations, leading a rapid phase of growth within the company history. Prior to Virtusa, as a senior consultant of Cambridge Technology Partners and Kenan Systems, Prasath has gained over six years of international consulting exposure spanning three continents as part of his consulting career in the United Status. During this period, Prasath has worked with many large multinational clients dealing with complex IT systems strategy planning, business process reengineering and program management. Prasath holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US and presently a director of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCAM) board. He is also the founder of the Amcham Strategic IT management program designed to leverage IT as a strategic tool of Sri Lankan enterprises. Prasath has over 14 years of experience in IT industry.

Sanath Fernando, Founder, Ridgecrest Financial & CEO of Ridgecrest Asia (Pvt) Limited

FOCUS: Entrepreneurship, Software Development, Consulting, Financial Services e-mail Sanath

Sanath Fernando's career spans 11 years, including 9 years in the securities industry. He has held the position of Managing Director at Schwab Soundview Capital Markets, Vice President at Epoch Partners, and Principal at Banc of America Securities. Sanath ran the program trading technology group at Schwab, giving the trading desk the ability to differentiate itself with technology. He ran the technology team for the program trading business at Banc of America Securities. At Epoch Partners he ran the trading technology organization, building a equity trading platform and spinning off a trading technology startup. At the start of his securities career, he developed quantitative trading systems at Susquehanna International Group. Prior to Susquehanna, Sanath worked as an engineer at a small embedded system company. He holds an MS in Electrical Engineering, a BS in Electrical Engineering, and a BSEcon in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania. Sanath is a U.S. Citizen. Prior to going to the U.S. he was a student and professional athlete in Sri Lanka. He has recently returned to Sri Lanka to create and run Ridgecrest Asia (Pvt) Ltd.

Dimashi Sigera - Assistant Manager, Training (Aviva Global Services Colombo)

FOCUS: BPO, Financial Services, HR, Training e-mail Dimashi

Dimashi has several years of experience in Business Process Outsourcing during her stint at WNS Global Services & Aviva Global Services Colombo. She was a part of the pilot team which transitioned the initial Finance & Accounting processes for WNS/& Aviva. She is a trained Internal Auditor for ISO 9001:2000 by the BVQI and is also trained on Six Sigma methodology (Green Belt) by WNS India. In her current role, she is responsible for Training with specialist knowledge in Training on Soft Skills, Behavioural/Leadership training as well as Accent Neutralization. She is an accredited trainer from Aviva Global Services and well as WNS Global Services (India). Additionally she has experience several functions of HR ranging from Sourcing, Employee Engagement, Performance Management, Talent Management etc Her total commercial experience is over 6 years in Banking & Finance, Apparel & BPO with several awards of service excellence from HSBC & WNS for her credit. Dimashi is currently reading for her MBA and is also a part qualified accountant.

Ajith Gamage - Software Quality Assurance Lead, Virtuaa

FOCUS: Software Quality Assurance, Testing, Consulting, Training e-mail Ajith

Ajith Gamage is a Software Quality Assurance Lead in Virtusa Corporation. He leads global quality assurance teams spread across multiple counties including India, China, US and UK. Prior to Virtusa, he was serving as a Software Quality Assurance Manager in Boomerang IT solutions and Openarc Systems Management (Pvt) Ltd. During this period, Ajith has worked with Sri Lankan and Foreign clients consulting and helping them to assure their product and process quality. Ajith holds a B.Sc. in Physical Science and M.Sc. in Computer Science from University of Colombo Sri Lanka. Ajith has played a numerous roles in the Software Quality Assurance arena helping the development of the Quality Assurance profession in Sri Lanka over the last eight years. He is also an active lecturer and conducts visiting lecturers in number of Government and Private Institutes on Quality Assurance to improve software quality assurance awareness in Sri Lanka.

Varuna Gunatilaka - Head of Business Development in the Asian-Pacific (APAC) region for Aeturnum

FOCUS: Business Development, Business Process, Consulting e-mail Varuna

Varuna Gunatilaka is the Head of Business Development for the Asian-Pacific (APAC) region at Aeturnum, Inc. He is responsible for all sales and business development efforts in this region, working with Aeturnums principal leadership to develop and grow the organization into regions beyond the US market. Varunas background as an IT Delivery manager, a Business Process Manager, and Business Operations Consulting enables him to have a constructive approach of both the IT service provider as well as the IT services consumer realms. This knowledge enables him to approach and deliver strategic solutions to IT problems that meet the customers short and long term goals. Prior to Aeturnum, Varunas experience spans 6 years at Virtusa, and 2 and half years at Attune Consulting. Varuna holds a BSc. in Business Administration and Information Systems from Bostons Northeastern University in the US. Varuna has over 10 years of IT industry experience, spanning both in the US and Sri Lanka. You can also contact Varuna via info@aeturnum.com