Rohitha Amarapala-President IPM Sri Lanka, Erman Tan-President Singapore Human Resources Institute, Navin Dissanayake MP-Minister of Plantation Industries  and Somesh Dasgupta-President NIPM India being welcomed

The National Human Resources Conference 2016 organized by IPM Sri Lanka, the Nation’s leader in human resources management successfully hosted its 2-day flagship conference, the largest HR conference in South Asia, on 21st and 22nd June at the BMICH in Colombo. 
The Guest of Honor Minister of Plantation Industries Navin Dissanayake. The Keynote Speaker President of the Singapore Human Resources Institute Erman Tan, IPM Sri Lanka President Rohitha Amarapala, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of NHRC 2016 Aruna Dayanatha together with the committee members, Past Presidents, Council Members and officials of IPM Sri Lanka graced the event.  The HR Service Providers’ Exhibition 2016 was inaugurated on the first day of the Conference providing an opportunity for all the attendees and participants to the NHRC to visit vendor stalls to view and familiarize themselves with the multitude of solutions available to increase the efficiencies and effectiveness of HR functions from a strategic as well as short/mid-term perspective. Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the IPM HR Service Providers’ Exhibition 2016 Col. 
The final round of the Great HR Debate 2016, the only debating championship dedicated to the HR sector, was worked out between GlaxoSmithkline and Pan Asia Bank alongside the main NHRC 2016 Conference on 21st June. 
Hayleys Plantations Sector (Kelani Valley Plantations PLC & Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC), Colombo Stock Exchange, Sampath Bank PLC, Brown & Company PLC, Unilever Sri Lanka Ltd, VirtusaPolaris (Pvt) Ltd and Bodyline (Pvt) Ltd were honored with the National HR Excellence Gold category awards while Kelani Cables PLC, Polytex Garments Ltd, People’s Leasing & Finance PLC, Fonterra Brands Lanka (Private) Ltd and GlaxoSmithKline were honored with the Silver category awards. The Gateway Hotel Airport Garden Colombo, Citizen Development Business Finance PLC, Classic Travel (Private) Ltd and the Employees Trust Fund Board were presented with the Bronze category awards.     
The National HR Excellence Awards 2016 individual category award recipients Dr. Jayantha Pathirathna (FIPM) was honored with the IPM Lifetime Gold Award 2016 while the PQHRM HR Professional of the Year 2016 Award was presented to M. B. Shiwanthie Wijesuriya, Manager HR – ikman (Pvt) Ltd. The unique IPM Sri Lanka People Leaders’ Awards 2016 are presented to non-HR professionals and are dedicated to recognizing the commitment of non-HR professionals towards promoting best practices in people management within the world of work. Shehenaz Dananjaya Dharmaratne, Deputy General Manager (Supplies and Stores)-Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation, Avindra Niroshana Seneviratne, Chief Internal Auditor/Assistant General Manager–Audit of Hatton National Bank PLC, Ajith Salgado-Deputy General Manager IT/Heal of IT of Sampath Bank PLC, Ravindra Ajantha Jayawardena-CEO Sales & Marketing-Maliban Biscuits Manufactories (Pvt) Ltd and Dr. Kithsiri Dissanayake-Chairman, Geological Survey and Mines Bureau were the recipients of the prestigious IPM Sri Lanka People Leaders’ Awards 2016 for People Leader Supply Chain, People Leader Finance, People Leader IT, People Leader Marketing and People Leader Engineering respectively.     
The evaluations of the applications for the awards were carried out independently by a panel of auditors attached to the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), University of Sri Jayewardenepura.