Supun Weerasinghe Takes Over as Dialog’s Group Chief Executive

In a release to the Colombo Stock Exchange, Friday 30th December 2016, Sri Lanka's premier connectivity provider, Dialog Axiata PLC, announced the succession of Supun Weerasinghe, as its Group Chief Executive, taking over from Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya who led the Company since 1997. The transition of leadership takes place with effect from 1st January 2017. Mr. Weerasinghe will also join the Board of Directors of the Dialog Group in the capacity of Executive Director.

Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya will remain closely associated with Dialog Axiata in his capacity as the Regional Chief Executive Officer for the South Asia Region (spanning subsidiary operations and investment interests in Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) of the Axiata Group. Dr. Wijayasuriya will also continue to serve on the Board of Directors of the Dialog Axiata Group as a Non-Independent, Non-Executive Director.

Mr. Weerasinghe joined the Dialog Group in 1999 and occupied several management positions within the Group prior to being appointed as Dialog's Group Chief Operating Officer in 2010. In 2013, Mr. Weerasinghe was seconded to the Axiata Corporate Center in Kuala Lumpur to take up an assignment as the Chief Strategy Officer of the Axiata Group, as part of his accelerated leadership development journey. Subsequently in 2014, he was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Robi Axiata in Bangladesh, the country's No. 2 mobile operator providing services to over 28 million subscribers.

Mr. Weerasinghe is a fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants UK, and holds an MBA from the University of Western Sydney Australia. Supun is a graduate of the University of Sri Jayawardenepura and an alumnus of the Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Programme.

The Axiata Group has been a committed investor in Sri Lanka since 1995 and has been recognised as the single largest Foreign Direct Investor in in the country by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka. Investments made towards the development of Sri Lanka's Telecommunications sector by Dialog exceed USD 2.0 Billion.