New President for SLIM

The DSI Samson Group, General Manager (Marketing) Rohan Somawansa was recently inducted as the new President of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing for 2010/2011.

With twenty years of marketing and sales experience, Somawansa has held several senior management positions during his career. He qualified from the Chartered Institute of Marketing with a Post Graduate Diploma, and from the Asia Marketing Federation with the Certified Professional Marketeer Status. He also has DBFA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Sri Lanka).

His work experience with some of the Fortune 500 companies and local stakeholders is expected to add extra value to SLIM in strategic decision making of which he is a firm believer. Introducing a link between the financial, human resources, and marketing organisations is his next important task. He says that this will be the pinnacle organization of the business sector with discussions already under way.

One of his main objectives for the year is to get recognition for marketing by producing better quality marketeers who can contribute in the Board Room.

Rohan is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and a Board Member of the Asia Marketing Federation.

Joining the SLIM Executive Committee in 2005, Rohan was also the Chairman of the first-ever People's Awards Program that year. This innovative project won accolades from the corporate world for its research based findings.

In 2006 he joined the Management Council as Assistant Secretary and went on to become Secretary. As Vice President - Education Somawansa initiated many value additions which helped to publish results in record time, upgrading the syllabus and providing on-line education.

Somawansa took over as Vice President Projects in 2009, where he was involved with all national projects handled by SLIM including NASCO, Effies, Brand Excellence, and People's Awards. NASCO was completely revamped that year making it a competition rather than an awards ceremony for participants.

He is also a well-known trainer, visiting lecturer and Chief Examiner for the' Marketing' paper at CMA examinations.

Somawansa is also involved in activities of national importance such as the Volleyball Federation, where he is the Vice President. He was Media Director of the Asian Junior Volleyball Games in 2009. In addition to his professional career he is also a sportsman having played cricket at inter-school level and also at club level.