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Asoka Abeygunawardana

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Nationality
  
Sri Lankan

Children
  
Amaya (daughter)

Spouse(s)
  
Wijayanthi

Religion
  
Buddhist

Asoka Abeygunawardana

Born
  
12 December 1963 (age 53) (
1963-12-12
)

Parents
  
Henry Dias (father) Lakshmi Rani (mother)

Education
  
St. Aloysius' College Galle Rahula College Matara D. S. Senanayake College, University of Moratuwa

Asoka Nalanda Abeygunawardana (born 12 December 1963) (known as Asoka Abeygunawardana) is a Sri Lankan. He is an Electrical Engineer, environmentalist, social activist and the current Chairman / CEO of the Strategic Enterprise Management Agency at Presidential Secretariat, Sri Lanka

Contents

Early life

He was born on 12 December 1963 in to a Sri Lankan political family. Asoka was the eldest son of Henry Dias Abeygunawardana (the first member of parliament Matara electorate in 1948) and his mother was Lakshmi Rani. He has two sisters Deepika & Renuka.

Education

Abeygunawardana completed his primary and secondary education at St. Aloysius' College Galle, Rahula College Matara and D. S. Senanayake College, Colombo. He then pursued further studies at the University of Moratuwa, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.

Professional career

He had also served as the Adviser to the Minister of Technology and Research and Adviser to the Minister of Power and Energy, Director Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority, Director Sri Lanka Energies, Executive Director Energy Forum (Guarantee) Limited.

Strategic Enterprise Management Agency (SEMA)

SEMA is established under a Sri Lanka President's decree and is operating under the Presidential Secretariat. The purpose of SEMA is to formulate strategic plans for the strategic sectors and assist the state owned strategic enterprises to formulate policy frameworks for ensure their long-term sustainability. The State owned enterprises under SEMA supervision include State Banks, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC), Central Transport Board (CTB,) Ports Authority, Railways and plantation companies. Abeygunawardana is the current Chairman of Strategic Enterprise Management Agency (SEMA).

International assignments & Conferences

  • The UNFCCC, COP-8 in Delhi, India in October 2002
  • UNFCCC Sixth Conference of Parties in Hague, Netherlands in November 2001
  • Regional training program organised by CORE International on behalf of USAID / SARI program on rural energy held in Dhaka Bangladesh in Feb 2002
  • International Symposium on South - South Networking Corporation on RE. held in Teheran, Iran, in Feb 2004
  • Renewable energy study tour to UK, Belgium and The Netherlands in March 2005
  • ISSUE II training program on waste management in The Netherlands in April 2006
  • Development Marketplace in Washington USA, in March 2006
  • Member of the Sri Lanka Government delegation at the UNFCCC COP 13- Bali, Indonesia in December 2007
  • World Bank Sustainable Energy Week in Washington USA, in March 2008
  • Asian Civil Society Consultation on Food and Energy Crisis, held in Islamabad, Pakistan in September 2008
  • The Regional Conference on Power Sector Reforms in Asia, organized CUTS in Calcutta on April 2010
  • The Renewable energy policy workshop organized by the World Resources Institute in Washington held on 22 and 23 Nov 2010
  • A developing world expert at the "Grounding Green Power: Bottom-up perspectives on smart renewable energy policy in developing countries" book launch organized by German Marshall Fund of United States and the World Resource Institute on May 23-24,2011 in Washington DC, USA
  • UNFCCC - COP 17 in Durban in December 2011
  • The 5th Asia Pasic Forum for Environment and Development (APFED) Plenary Meeting and the 2009 Ryutaro Hashimoto APFED Awards Ceremony which was held from 31 July – 3 August 2009 in Nanao, Ishikawa, Japan
  • The Feed In Tariff workshop organized by the UNEP in Paris in Feb 2012
  • The Feed In Tariff workshop organized by the ADB in Manila in Feb 2012
  • Books & publications

  • The Revolution of the Era
  • A world without coal or oil - published in 2008
  • Feed-in-tariff in Sri Lanka 2012
  • Future Challenges of Electricity Planning
  • Gliricidia- Fourth Plantation Crop of Sri Lanka
  • Feed in tariff in Sri Lanka
  • Family

    He is married to Wijayanthi Abeygunawardana and have one daughter Amaya.

    References

    Asoka Abeygunawardana Wikipedia