Lasitha Gayashan Dharmadasa
Summary
Accomplished marketer and plantation management specialist with expertise in digital applications. Proven skills in business management, sales, and branding, supported by a strong foundation in agricultural operations. Extensive experience across diverse industries, including tea, construction, and FMCG distribution.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
Work History
Area Leaf Growing & Sustainability Dep. Manager
Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC
02.2025 - Current
- Responsible for four area depots/factories and leading the flagship sustainability project of the company.
- Manage a base of over 500 farmers to provide more than 300 MT of tobacco to the company.
- Managing LKR 300 million in farmer payments and field-level deployment.
- Direct reporting: 14 members.
- Leading innovation and technology deployment at plantations.
- Maintain the required EHS environment across four factories, and maintain all the internal and external stakeholders.
- Delivered key sustainability deployment project for 2024-25
- Forecasting, formulating, and managing the budget allocated.
Area Manager - Area Growing Operations
Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC
10.2023 - 02.2025
- Responsible for the overall tobacco growing, buying, and delivering operation in Haliela and Walapane depots/factories.
- Managing 400 farmers, including farmer unions across 2 factories.
- Maintaining all EHS, Sustainability, and other operational level standards across the factories.
- Forecasting, formulating, and managing the budget allocated.
- Continuous staff training.
Management Trainee/Global Graduate
Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC
08.2022 - 04.2024
- Completed an 18-month fast-track leadership and management trainee program at British American Tobacco.
- Gained management exposure in Finance, Legal, HR, Operations, and Leaf functions at Ceylon Tobacco Company.
- Owned key projects and contributed to operational excellence at Ceylon Tobacco Company.
- Collaborated with global managers and trainees to optimize daily operations.
- Trained functional teams to enhance performance at Ceylon Tobacco Company.
Trade Marketing Executive
Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC
08.2020 - 08.2022
- Awarded as the Emerging Trade Marketing Executive of the Year 2021.
- Execution of the regional marketing/business plan by achieving the volume target on a monthly basis as the person in charge of the respective territory. (Territories handled: Colombo, North Western, North Central, and Eastern) - Target: LKR +100 million.
- Channel management, including general trade, modern trade, HoReCa, and military.
- Formulate and execute the territory business plan annually, quarterly, and on a monthly basis.
- Execution of business development and promotional activities within the region, and effectively utilize the territory development budget.
- Execution of Route-to-Market activities, and maintaining and achieving the RTM KPIs.
- Analyze all the business-related trends of own territories to find the issues, and provide sustainable solutions.
- Monitor indirect distribution channels (Active and Passive Sub-Dealers).
- Maintain relationships with regional law enforcement authorities, including the Police Department, Excise Department, etc. As crucial engagement.
- Execution of new brand launches and responsible for the effective brand cycle management.
- Provide continuous training and development to sales staff, and build an efficient and motivated sales force within the territory. - Staff: +30 Sales Reps.
Senior Executive – Accessories
United Motors Lanka PLC
11.2018 - 08.2020
- Responsible for managing the entire operation of Accessories division by reporting to AGM -Spare parts and Accessories.
- Achieving the monthly and annual sales revenue targets of both branches and dealers.
- Regular branch and dealer visits, Regular customer visits.
- Plan the promotional activities with the marketing division. participate and execute trade promotions for auto accessories, recovery management etc.
Sales and Marketing Executive- Environmental Services (Corporate)
Finlay Rentokil (Ceylon) PLC
08.2016 - 11.2018
- Meet all stakeholders in promoting total product and service portfolio Achieving monthly sales target (Corporate clients).
- Raise Quotations, proposals and negotiate with key stakeholders.
- Organize and execute the regular sales visits.
- Manage the distribution of the product portfolio.
- Coordinate the technical team to provide a better service to the customer on time.
- Support and follow the annual marketing plan and budget.
- Handle the total recovery process and achieve the collection target monthly.
- Managing dynamic company’s internal and external environment.
- Update sales and marketing related data to the ERP system.
- Analyze and present sales outcomes to the management in monthly and weekly basis etc.
Education
MBA - Logistics And Supply Chain Management
Cardiff Metropolitan University
UK11-2025
Certificate - Power BI
Project Management Institute
Sri Lanka09-2024
MSc - Digital Marketing
Asia e University
Malaysia01.2023
Chartered post Graduate Diploma - Professional Marketing
The Chartered Institute of Marketing/CIM
UK01.2019
Post Graduate Diploma - Marketing
Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing/SLIM
Sri Lanka01.2018
Bachelor of Science (Honors) - Agribusiness Management
University of Ruhuna
Sri Lanka09-2017
Skills
- Negotiation skills
- Customer service
- Team collaboration
- Decision making
- Innovation
- Marketing and brand management
- Economic analysis
- Business management
- Research methodologies
- Agricultural sciences
- Microsoft Office applications
- ERP systems: SAP, QuickBooks, Oracle
Personal Information
- Date of Birth: 02/26/92
- Nationality: Sinhalese
- Marital Status: Married
References
- Prof. K.N.N De Silva, Lecturer Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Ruhuna, nadee@agecon.ruh.ac.lk, 0717553936/0412292200
- Mr. Damith Baduraliyage, Head of Leaf Operations, Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC, 077-3938798, DAMITH_BADURALIYAGE@BAT.COM
Extracurricular Activities
Mercantile Sports Sri Lanka- Cricket and Football - Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC - 2023-2025
Sports inter-faculty sport meets, University of Ruhuna, runner-up football: 2015, 2016, 2017
Runner-up, badminton 2016
3rd place in the 400 relay, 2013
2nd runner-up, interfaculty fresher’s football, 2014
Former member of the faculty football team, swimming team, badminton team, and athletic team
Junior treasurer and active member of the Agribusiness Association, University of Ruhuna, and former member of the faculty students' council
Academic Strengths
- Marketing and brand management
- Supply chain management
- Economics
- Business management
- Research skills
- Agriculture, food science, soil science, geography
- Biology, chemistry, and physics
- MS Office
- Design - Corel Draw, Photoshop
- ERP system (SAP, Axpert, Oracle, QuickBooks - UK edition)
Research Studies
- Possibility of AI integration in courier services in Sri Lanka for effective and customer-centric service - MBA 2025
- A study to unveil the factors affecting customer perceived value on pest control service of Finlay Rentokil Ceylon Pvt. Ltd., individual research of SLIM Post Graduate Level, subject price winner - 2018
- Impact of online advertising on consumer buying behavior for electronic devices, final year individual research, University of Ruhuna
Languages
English
Proficient (C2)
C2
Sinhala
Native
Native
Accomplishments
Emerging Trade Marketing Executive of the Year, 2021.
Timeline
Area Leaf Growing & Sustainability Dep. Manager
Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC
02.2025 - Current
Area Manager - Area Growing Operations
Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC
10.2023 - 02.2025
Management Trainee/Global Graduate
Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC
08.2022 - 04.2024
Trade Marketing Executive
Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC
08.2020 - 08.2022
Senior Executive – Accessories
United Motors Lanka PLC
11.2018 - 08.2020
Sales and Marketing Executive- Environmental Services (Corporate)
Finlay Rentokil (Ceylon) PLC
08.2016 - 11.2018
MBA - Logistics And Supply Chain Management
Cardiff Metropolitan University
Certificate - Power BI
Project Management Institute
MSc - Digital Marketing
Asia e University
Chartered post Graduate Diploma - Professional Marketing
The Chartered Institute of Marketing/CIM
Post Graduate Diploma - Marketing
Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing/SLIM
Bachelor of Science (Honors) - Agribusiness Management
University of Ruhuna