Dananjaya makes Sri Lanka proud again at Ovation 2012
Toastmasters International Hall of Fame Inductee Dananjaya
Hettiarachchi made Sri Lanka proud, winning the much looked forward to
International Speech Contest, held during the recently concluded Ovation
2012 – the Annual Conference of Toastmasters District 82. He was also
the only Sri Lankan to have emerged as a winner of the speech contests
held during Ovation 2012.
Dananjaya Hettiarachchi(third from the left) receiving his award
from toast-masters District 82 Governor,DtM Zameen M Saleem
(second form the left). toastmasters International President DtM
Michael Notaro and toastmasters Region 13 International Director
DtM Arunasalam Balraj are also in the picture. |
With his achievement Hettiarachchi made history being the only Sri
Lankan to have won the District level International Speech Contest twice
in a row and will be representing District 82 at the highly celebrated
Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking 2012. The contest is
a highlight of Toastmasters 81st International Convention, scheduled to
be held in August 2012 at the Hilton Bonnet Creek Hotel in Orlando,
Florida. The speech contest semifinals will take place on 16th August
and nine winners - representing regions from around the world - will
advance themselves to the final round, to be held on Saturday, August
18.
The Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking is the world’s
biggest series of public speaking, the Olympics of Oratory, the final
bout for the heavyweight title “World Champion of Public Speaking”. Each
year, this speech contest culminates at the organization’s four-day
International Convention. The District 82 contestant Dananjaya
Hettiarachchi made his entry to the semifinals following a year-long
process of elimination at club, area and district level competitions
from a pool of 30,000 participants in 116 countries worldwide.
Toastmasters International is the world leader in public speaking,
communication and leadership training which serves over 270,000 members
in 12,500 plus clubs in 116 countries. Since its founding in October
1924, the organization has helped more than 4 million men and women to
become confident individuals through its communication and leadership
programme.
Hettiarachchi is a seasoned orator who has made several ground
breaking achievements during his Toastmaster journey. Before emerging as
the winner of the District level International Speech Contest for the
first time in 2011, Hettiarachchi placed second at both 2007 and 2009
competitions. He won the ‘All Island Best Speaker Contest’ in 2007 for
his best known speech, Chasing Butterflies. He also holds the prestige
of being the only Sri Lankan to have won the International Taped Speech
Contest in the year 2006 for his speech ‘Humanity, is there hope?.’In
recognition of this outstanding achievement, Hettiarachchi was inducted
to the Toastmasters International Hall of Fame.
Apart from competing in international contests, Hettiarachchi like
many Toastmasters has helped others to find their voice as confident
individuals.
He helped nurture two of the leading Toastmasters clubs in Sri Lanka.
He was the President of Smedley Toastmasters club (2007) and the Vice
President of Ralph Toastmasters club (2007).
As a professional Hettiarachchi is both a trainer and a human
resources development (HRD) specialist. Currently much of
Hettiarachchi’s work centres around national HRD infrastructure & policy
development, reflected through his work with the Sri Lankan government.
A consultant specialized in psychometric profiling based recruitment and
performance management, sales, communication, change leadership and
customer relationship management, Hettiarachchi’s clientele includes
some of the blue chip corporates in the country such as Virtusa, Nations
Trust Bank , HSBC, Airtel, AVIVA, Commercial Bank, Hatton National Bank
etc. Hettiarachchi’s specialized skill set is highly sought after by
organizations that place emphasis on employee profiling to better align
training and development initiatives, CRM strategies and performance
prediction to mitigate performance risk.
Hettiarachchi is currently reading for his Msc. in HRD and
Performance Management from a tier first UK University. He holds an MBA
from a prestigious Australian University; and a Bachelors Degree with a
double major in Marketing and Management.
He is also a Sri Lankan Prizewinner of CIM (UK) and is part qualified
in CIMA (UK). To put icing on the cake, Dananjaya is also a Gold Medal
Dancer and champion ballroom dancer. He was the winner in the ballroom
category at the International Dance Sports Competition 2007; who also
competed at the Crystal Dance Sports championships in Malaysia in 2010. |