FY-2003 INTERNATIONAL VISITOR PROGRAM: SRI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 002178

SIPDIS


STATE FOR ECA/PE/V/P-ALISON MOYLAN/DEBORAH THOMPSON;
ECA/PE/V/G/N-ALICE SHIFFLETT; SA/PD


E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OEXC SCUL KPAO OEXC
SUBJECT: FY-2003 INTERNATIONAL VISITOR PROGRAM: SRI
LANKAN NOMINATIONS FOR MRP ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: SEPTEMBER 25-OCTOBER 16,
2003
PROJECT NO. E/VP-2003-0041

REF: (A) STATE 50054, (B) STATE 129406, (C) COLOMBO

01899


1. POST NOMINATES MR. NISSANKA WEERASEKERA, MANAGING
DIRECTOR, NEXTVENTURES, FOR PARTICIPATION IN SUBJECT
PROJECT.


2. PART I OF NOMINEES' BIO DATA FOLLOWS:
EXPORT-SOURCE: USIS EVDB
VERSION: 3.0.0
POST-EMAIL: rscmb@pd.state.gov
TRANSMITTING-POST: PAS Colombo
TRANSMITTING-POST-ID: 2929
EXPORT-TYPE: BIO DATA
START NOMINATION:
USIA-OFFICE: E/VGN
PROG-AGENCY-NAME:
POST-PROJ-ID: 69
USIA-PROJ-NO:
PROJ-NAME: Electronic Commerce and The Global
Economy - September 25 - October 6, 2003
START MEMO PROJ-DESC:

END MEMO PROJ-DESC:
PROJ-TYPE: Multi-Regional
PROG-TYPE: IV Grant Visitor
FY: 2003
DEPART-POST: 09/23/2003
SESSION-DATE: 09/25/2003
RETURN-POST: 10/09/2003
NO-OF-PART: 1
RANK-ORDER: 11
START MEMO POST-OBJ:
In compliance with MPP Goal: To support economic
reforms and boost US trade and investment
END MEMO POST-OBJ:
START MEMO POST-RCMD:

END MEMO POST-RCMD:
USIA-OFFICE-ID: 1039
PROG-AGENCY-ID:
PROJ-TYPE-ID: MRP
PROG-TYPE-ID: 29
NOMINATING-POST-ID: 2929
FUNDING-CNTRY-ID:
STATUS: N
ORIGINATOR: P
SUBJ-DISC: Economics (General)
START BIO:
PREFIX: Mr.
F-NAME: Nissanka
M-NAME:
L-NAME: WEERASEKARA
SUFFIX:
PRINCIPAL?: Yes
M-ADDR1: Nextventures
M-ADDR2: Level 2, No.34
M-ADDR3: Sir Mohamed M.M. Mawatha
M-CITY: Colombo 3
M-STATE:
M-CNTRY: Sri Lanka
M-ZONE:
M-ZIP:
M-PHONE: (94-1) 308-803
M-FAX: (94-1) 304-457
M-EMAIL: nissanka@nextvc.com
M-CNTRY-ID: CE
M-ADDRTYPE: B
GENDER: M
DOB: 11/30/1959
MAR-STAT: M
BIRTH-CITY: Colombo
BIRTH-CNTRY: Sri Lanka
CITIZ-CNTRY: Sri Lanka
RES-CNTRY: Sri Lanka
START MEMO POSITION:
Managing Director, Nextventures, March 2001- to date
END MEMO POSITION:
START MEMO OTHER-POSITIONS:

END MEMO OTHER-POSITIONS:
START MEMO PREV-POSITIONS:
December 1995-February 2001 - General Manager/CEO,
Peoples Venture Investment Company
December 1993-November 1995 - Project Manager,
Financial Markets Project (FMP),USAID
September 1990-November 1993 - Project Manager,
Technology Initiative for the Private Sector
(TIPS),USAID
July 1989-August 1990 - Manager, Centrifuging
Factory, Dipped Products Ltd., Hayleys Group
May 1985-June 1989 - Management Accountant, Dipped
Products Ltd., Hayleys Group
END MEMO PREV-POSITIONS:
START MEMO US-TRAVEL:
1991 - Stanford Research Institute - for short
training course on Fundamentals of Asian Private
Equity Investment
1993 - George Washington University - for course on
Promoting Global Trade and Investment: Strategies
for Competing Effectively in the 1990s
END MEMO US-TRAVEL:
START MEMO OTHER-TRAVEL:
Finland - 1989 - Attended a diploma course in Export
Marketing and Export Market Research, Helsinki
School of Economics
END MEMO OTHER-TRAVEL:
START MEMO EDUCATION:
B.Sc. (Special) in Physics Upper Second, University
of Peradeniya
M.A. in Economics, University of Colombo
Fellow, Chartered Institute of Management
Accountants (CIMA)
Level I, Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Program
END MEMO EDUCATION:
START MEMO MEMBERSHIPS:

END MEMO MEMBERSHIPS:
START MEMO PUBLICATIONS:

END MEMO PUBLICATIONS:
START MEMO SPEC-CONSID:

END MEMO SPEC-CONSID:
FIRST-LANG: Sinhala
ENGL-READ: 4
ENGL-SPEAK: 4
ENGL-COMP: 4
START MEMO NOM-POST-OBJ:
In compliance with MPP Goal: To support economic
reforms and boost US trade and investment
END MEMO NOM-POST-OBJ:
START MEMO NOM-POST-RCMD:

END MEMO NOM-POST-RCMD:
START MEMO VIS-OBJ:

END MEMO VIS-OBJ:
START MEMO VIS-REC:

END MEMO VIS-REC:
NOMINATING-OFFICER: Teresa Manlowe
START MEMO NOMINATING-JUSTIFICATION:
Nissanka Weerasekera (42 Years) is currently the
Managing Director of Nextventures, a leading venture
capital company in Sri Lanka. In 1999/00 he served
as president of the venture capital association of
Sri Lanka. He is one of the leading financial
professionals in Sri Lanka and has an excellent rack
record. Nissanka's FARSIghted thinking made
Nextventures (previously known as People's Venture
Investment) invest in seed capital of Millennium IT
(MIT) at a time when most banks were reluctant to
invest in IT sector, as software development was
still new to Sri Lanka. This investment has paid
rich dividends with MIT today ranked as a world
class company winning contracts in Sri Lanka and
abroad. Nextventures has many other successes under
Nissanka's management. Recently, the company also
took equity in Textcentric, which is a US-SL joint
venture to promote e-learning.

Nissanka had his entire education in Sri Lanka. His
qualifications include a MA in Economics from the
University of Colombo and a B.Sc. in Physics from
the University of Peradeniya. He also has
professional qualifications in accounting being a
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management
Accountants (CIMA, UK). In addition, he is enrolled
in Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Program.
Previously. he has followed two short training
courses in the U.S. at George Washington University
(1993) and USAID/Stanford Research Institute, 1991.
Nissanka continues to be a useful contact for us in
Sri Lanka's business sector. He has excellent
presentation skills and leadership skills. His
professional background, strong personality and
leadership skills made him an ideal candidate for
higher positions within the government (such as BOI,
PERC, Bank of Ceylon or People's Bank, Finance
Ministry) or in the private sector. We expect the
IV program on Electronic Commerce in the Global
Economy to help Nissanka to gain knowledge of e-
commerce as his company is investing in equity in IT
startups.

END MEMO NOMINATING-JUSTIFICATION:
NOM-OFF: Econ/Commercial
SPEAKER?: No
NOTIFY-EMB: Yes
MEDIA?: No
HOME-STAY: Yes
HOME-HOSP?: Yes
E-I-TYPE:
NOMINEE-ID: 101
PERSON-ID: 105
BIRTH-CNTRY-ID: CE
CITIZ-CNTRY-ID: CE
RES-CNTRY-ID: CE
FIRST-LANG-ID: SI
E-I-TYPE-ID:
NOM-POST-ID: 2929
NOM-FUNDING-CNTRY-ID:
NOM-STATUS: N
END BIO:
END NOMINATION:


3. PLEASE ADVISE ACCEPTANCE OF THIS NOMINATION.
WILLS