Former chairman of CAASL appointed Chairman of Hilton Hotel

Former chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL)  Upul Dharmadasa, has been appointed as the new Chairman of Hotel Developers (Lanka) PLC, which operates the Hilton Hotel, Colombo.

Dharamadasa is a graduate of the Ceylon Hotels School, who ended up operating the online largest Sri Lankan overseas hotel booking search engine named UTravel, based in Los Angeles.

He is also a former member of the hospitality sector of Sri Lanka and served at Hotel Intercontinental, Holiday inn, and Oberoi, and was Head of the Food and Beverages on board Lanka Kalyani, the cadet training ship of the Ceylon Shipping Corporation before migrating to the United States joining his wife, Barbara Dharmadasa. There, he completed Nutrition and Food Service Professional Training at the University of North Dakota, USA and worked as an in-house hospital dietician before starting his Upuls Travel Service.

 After several decades, Dharmadasa  returned home in the year 2020 to take over the position at the CAASL, where he was notably empathetic towards the staff at all levels and was often seen at their weddings, funerals, and other social functions, and the entire staff became one family who pulled the tug in one direction. His concern extended to the staff at all levels, including the minor staff of Abans Company who carried out the janitorial services, he considered to be the silent contributors to the organization’s success and as a result, the two strong unions operating at the time he assumed duties were dissolved by its members in the belief that Dharmadasa, as Chairman, with the assistance of the Board, was taking care of their legitimate concerns.