AMCHAM Modern Workplaces: Empowering the female workforce

Ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz was sworn in as Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives on October 22, 2018 and arrived in Colombo on October 31, 2018. She served as U.S. Ambassador to Nepal from 2015-2018. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister Counselor, she joined the State Department in 1991 and is the recipient of numerous Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards. In Sri Lanka, she hopes to build upon seven decades of partnership and cooperation in order to enhance prosperity, encourage democracy and ensure stability.

Focused on laying the foundation for successful 21st century American diplomacy, Ms. Teplitz held the Assistant-Secretary ranked position of Director of the Under Secretary for Management’s Office of Policy, Rightsizing, and Innovation (M/PRI) at the Department of State from 2012-2015. Under her leadership, M/PRI found innovative ways to reform our bureaucracy and improve the way that our diplomatic service operates. Ms. Teplitz championed efforts to improve knowledge management, data use, and risk management.

Prior to leading M/PRI, Ms. Teplitz was Minister Counselor for Management at U.S. Embassy Kabul from 2011-2012. She managed a team providing oversight for U.S. Government Chief of Mission civilian activities in Afghanistan, and planning for the impact of the eventual military force reduction. Ms. Teplitz also served as the Deputy Executive Director of the Near East and South and Central Asia Bureau’s joint executive office from 2009-2011, where she handled the South and Central Asia portfolio, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ms. Teplitz was the Director of the Management Training Division at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute from 2007-2009. Previous assignments include Management Counselor in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Deputy Director of the Joint Administrative Services supporting three U.S. Missions – the U.S. Mission to NATO, the U.S. Mission to the European Union, and the Embassy to the Kingdom of Belgium – in Brussels, Belgium. Her previous posts also include: Ulaanbaatar, Tirana, and Sydney.

Ms. Teplitz holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She is married and has two sons.

Chandi is the Senior Director of Human Resources at Virtusa Pvt. Ltd, where she is responsible for the Sri Lanka geography and global Transportation, Manufacturing and Independent Services SBU. Prior to this, Chandi was at MAS Holdings in the role of General Manager – Group Learning & Development for 11 years, and in the startup team of Cosi inc,. New York which went public in 2001 (NASDAQ: COSI).
She was awarded the HR Leadership Award by the Asia Pacific HRM Congress in 2014 and was recognized as Echelon Magazine’s list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Sri Lanka (2015). In 2016, Chandi was conferred the Women Leadership Achievement Award by the World Women Leadership Congress. In addition, Chandi was recognized as one of Asia’s most innovative HR tech leaders by the Asia Pacific HRM Congress (2018).
She has her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and her Master’s in Business Administration and has also attended executive education programs conducted by the INSEAD business school.
Chandi serves as a board director of SLASSCOM, a board director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka, a council member of the EFC and is the immediate past president of the American Alumni Association of Sri Lanka. In addition, she was a board director of the Association of Human Resource Professionals of Sri Lanka in the recent past.

Kasturi Wilson has served Hemas Holdings since 2002 when she first joined as the Finance Director of Hemtours (presently, Diethelm Travels). She was then appointed as the Head of the group’s Shared Service Unit, Vishwa BPO in 2005 after which she took on the role of Chief Process Officer of Hemas Holdings where she also managed the group’s process and IT infrastructure.

Kasturi has headed the Hemas Logistics and Maritime cluster, and Hemas Pharmaceuticals as Managing Director since 2011 and 2016 respectively. She was appointed as a Non Executive Director of Morrisons PLC in 2017.

Since beginning her career at Someswaran Jayawickrama & Co. (presently, Deloitte) as an audit trainee, Kasturi has gained many years of experience in diverse industries. She has worked as Financial Controller of Aramex Airborne Lanka and later of Confifi Hotels before joining the Hemas group.

Kasturi is a Harvard Business School alumnus and a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants UK, where she also served as a board member. Additionally, she is a member of the sub-committee on Economic, Fiscal and Policy Planning of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and serves as a member of the National Agenda Committee for Logistics and Maritime of the chamber. She currently holds the position of Senior Vice President of the Sri Lanka Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Industry, and is also a non-executive board director of Capital Alliance Ltd.


This passionate individual was listed in Lanka Monthly Digest’s 2018 A-LIST of 50 Sri Lankan businesspeople and was named a career role model by Women in Management in 2013. She also won the Women Super Achiever Award at the 2016 World Women Leadership Congress Awards held in Mumbai, India.

Kasturi was recognised as one of the 12 changemakers of Srilanka , by the parliament of Sri lanka and USAID

A proud product of Holy Family Convent Bambalapitiya, Kasturi has a background in sports having represented the National Basketball team from 1989 to 1993, which she captained in 1989.

Aarthy is the Employment Lead of IFC-DFAT Women in Work Program in Sri Lanka, IFC's largest country-based gender program, working with private sector companies to close gender gaps while improving business performance. She spearheads the SheWorks Sri Lanka partnership which includes 18 leading private sector companies across different industries, potentially having an impact on more than 200,000 employees (60 percent women). She also leads IFC’s Employer-Supported Tackling Childcare initiative in Sri Lanka, helping companies hire and retain parents, while boosting profits and productivity.

Prior to joining IFC she has held senior leadership roles in HR working with Goodhope Asia Holdings, TNT Express, and Unilever. She is multi-culturally well-versed having held responsibilities for special projects in India, Indonesia, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

Aarthy was the first woman to represent Sri Lanka at the Asian Association of Management Organizations’ Young Manager Programme, a well-known Asian leadership forum. She has won many accolades at Unilever, including having been recognized as the Unilever Hero by Unilever’s global CEO, Paul Polman. Aarthy holds an MBA specialized in HR with Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) in India. She is an Advanced Open Water Certified Scuba Diver and a globe trotter who enjoys adventure sports and photography.

An experienced specialist in the fields of industrial relations and employment in the country, Mr. Weerasinghe is the 11th Director General of the EFC and is credited with having handled a broad spectrum of industrial issues for different sectors, including the plantations, over the years. An Attorney-at-Law, he came on the EFC’s board in 1997 as an Industrial Relations Advisor after a successful stint at the Attorney General’s Department. He was promoted to the positions of EFC’s Assistant Director General in 2004 and thereafter as its Deputy Director General in 2007. An experienced specialist in the fields of industrial relations and employment in the country, he holds a Masters degree in International Relations from the University of Colombo. He also has associated qualifications and has received executive education at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and holds numerous positions related to his expertise at the national level, which includes being a member of the National Labour Advisory Council.

Sarinda is the CEO & Managing Director of MAS Kreeda, the Nike division of MAS Holdings, heading Environmental Sustainability for MAS. He is also an active member of MAS’ Innovations Leadership Team.

He joined MAS in 2001 as the CEO of Linea Aqua, a start-up joint venture in conjunction with MAS Holdings, Brandot International and Speedo International.

Sarinda is an alumnus of Ithaca College, New York, where he graduated with a BSc. in Business Management and received his Executive education at the INSEAD School of Business, Cornell University and Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Aside from heading Environmental Sustainability for MAS Group, Sarinda also serves on the Biodiversity Sri Lanka Board of Directors.