Posted on January 9, 2023
Eranda Kotelawala has been elected as vice-president for the southeast Asia and Oceania region of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH).
Since 2017, Kotelawala has served as the CEO of the Solomon Islands Ports Authority, which oversees the two major ports and terminals at Noro and Honiara.
Kotelawala was Chief Operating Officer of Fiji Ports Corporation Limited, which included the ports of Suva, Lautoka, Levuka, Malau, and Wairiki between 2015 and 2017.
Kotelawala takes over for Jay Daniel R. Santiago, who finished off his term as General Manager of the Philippine Ports Authority last summer.
Kotelawala’s term is anticipated to last until the IAPH 2023 Annual Public Meeting, when a new board will be established following a general election that will take place in the spring of 2023, in accordance with the terms of the IAPH Constitution.
READ: NYK Line Scouts Solomon Islands’ Ports for Partnership
Kotelawala earned his master’s degree from Aberdeen Business School in Scotland. He then focused on business process re-engineering, gaining extensive expertise in this area at a number of international ports.
This included positions as a senior consultant to Transnet Port Authority in Durban, South Africa and the Port of Sultan Qaboos in Oman.
Solomon Islands Ports Authority were recently recipients of the IAPH 2022 Sustainability Award for Community Building at the IAPH World Ports Conference in Vancouver.
The port had an initiative that supported rural communities by providing renewable energy for those who previously could not access any form of energy across the Islands.
