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meet our leadership team

DUSTY ALAHAKOON

Dusty is the Chairman of NEXT Campus and a Non-Executive Director at Pepper Cube Consultants and the former Managing Director of Heineken Lanka. He is a corporate trainer, speaker at forums and a lecturer for Master’s programs specializing in strategy, leadership and change.

Dusty has over 25 years industry experience with leading multinational companies, in diverse sectors, in different functions and leadership levels. He started his career in the pharmaceutical industry (1991-1995) and then moved to Caterpillar Marketing Services (1996-1998). He then moved into brand management in FMCG (1999) before taking a research role at British American Tobacco (BAT) PLC Colombo. Finally, he was Head of Brands at BAT (2000-05), and moved as Head of Marketing to Coca-Cola Sri Lanka (2006-11). Currently, he is the Managing Director at Heineken Lanka since 2011.

Dusty completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) UK and became a Fellow Member and a Charted Marketer. He completed his MBA in 2002. Dusty is the first Sri Lankan to be selected and graduate (2017-19) from the ‘Executive Masters for Coaching & Consulting for Change (EMC)’ at INSEAD Campus. Currently, he is reading for his doctorate.

Dusty has been trained in University of Pretoria in Johannesburg, INSEAD Campus in Fontainebleau and Harvard Business School in Boston on leadership and strategic management. His areas of research interests revolve around managing change both at individual and corporate level with particular focus on digital transformation and
CEO succession and transition.

In his free time, he enjoys teaching, cycling, and travelling to new destinations. He is the founder of “Life after School Foundation” dedicated for career guidance and shaping future talent for
corporate sector.

KUMUDU ABEYAWARDANE

Kumudu joined NEXT Campus as the founder General Manager in 2007, and is currently the CGO of NEXT Campus.

Kumudu started her career as a professional banker at HSBC, she first moved to the education sector when she joined British Council in 2002. Prior to joining NEXT, Kumudu was attached to ICBT Campus Sri Lanka as the Head of Postgraduate Division, where she was responsible for the delivery of multiple Master’s courses and a DBA.

Kumudu has worked with multiple University partners and awarding bodies from US, UK and Australia.Kumudu holds a BA (Hons) in Social Sciences, a Post Graduate Diploma in Development Economics and an MBA from Birmingham City University. In addition, she holds a full professional qualification from Institute of Bankers and Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) Sri Lanka.

She is currently a doctoral candidate on the PhD in Educational Research – Higher Education at University of Lancaster, UK.

MEET OUR TEAM

Tuan Mubarak Saideen

Education Advisor

Ornella Van Sanden

Education Advisor

Susitha Lakshmi

Finance Manager