Minodh de Sylva accepting the award 


Richard Pieris Companies Head of Marketing Minodh de Sylva was honoured with the coveted ‘Marketing Professional of the Year’ award at the sixth Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Asia Global Brand Excellence Awards 2015 held recently at Pan Pacific Hotel, Marina Bay, Singapore. 
The award, which was the most prestigious individual award of the event, was presented in recognition of his achievements in the fields of strategic marketing and brand building in Sri Lanka, selected amongst many other senior marketing professionals from 24 countries in Europe, Asia, Australasia and the Middle East.

This is the second international accolade Minodh has won this year following the award for  ‘Excellence in Marketing & Brand Leadership’, presented by the Golden Globe Tigers Awards & Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in April.

The CMO or Chief Marketing Officer Asia is an organisation dedicated to high level knowledge exchange through leadership and networking amongst senior CMOs and brand decision-makers across industry segments. Previous winners selected by its panel for this prestigious award include HDFC Life Executive VP Marketing Sanjay Tripathi, DHL Express Senior Director Marketing South Asia Chandrasekaran Pitre, Indian Oil Company Director Marketing G.C. Daga, Dell Online Director Asia Pacific and Japan Damien Cummings and Telkom Indonesia Chief Marketing Officer Muhhamed Awaluddin. 

His career as a retail marketing specialist has spanned for 13 years, with more than eight years in senior management across many challenging industries from FMCG, insurance, healthcare, banking, finance and the retail sectors. He has worked with some of the most celebrated brands in the country namely Elephant House, Ceylinco Insurance (Life), Nations Trust Bank, The Finance Company PLC and Arpico - Richard Peiris & Co. PLC, all of which are featured in the top 50 of the 100 most valuable brands in Sri Lanka rated by Brand Finance PLC (UK).

In his current role, he is attached to Richard Pieris & Co. PLC, the sixth biggest conglomerate brand and a diversified group with a rich history of 83 years. Its flagship brand ‘Arpico’ is one of the most powerful local household brands in Sri Lanka for over 50 years, serving the  Sri Lankan consumer with a diverse range of products across many sectors such as retail (supermarkets), manufacturing, plantations, tyres, insurance, finance and FMCG.

Having had the privilege of holding many management and senior management titles at a very early age in his marketing career, he holds the prestige of becoming one of the youngest ‘Chartered Marketers’ in the country at the age of 26 having attained the Chartered status from CIM (UK) in 2007. He was also awarded the status of ‘Practicing Marketer’ (SL) from the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing in 2013 in recognition of his exceptional contributions in branding and marketing. 

Minodh has also achieved the recognition for guiding many financial brands at the SLIM Brand Excellence Awards. His proven track record has been significantly marked by being one of the youngest members in many senior management teams and board sub - committees in marketing, integrated risk management and asset and liabilities in the financial services sector. He is also a sought-after speaker and visiting lecturer in branding, marketing and credit management.