Profile – Mrs. J.M. Thilaka Jayasundara

By profession Mrs. Jayasundara is a special grade officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service. She is the Commonwealth Excellence Award Winner for the Government Performance Management and Measurement of 2021. Previously she worked as the Secretary of the Ministry of Industries as the first lady Secretary of its history from 1931 to 25^th July 2022. Formerly she was the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, State Ministry of Minor Crops Development and Export Promotion and was the Director General of the Department of Public Enterprises of the Ministry of Finance, while working simultaneously as the First Lady Chairperson of the Independent Television Network (ITN). She was also the Additional Secretary (Development and Planning) of the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media.

Mrs. Jayasundara was the Former Director (Industry) of the Asian Productivity Organization Tokyo, Japan, and worked as the APO Head of the National Productivity Organization for Sri Lanka for almost ten years. She was the first Non-Japanese Director (Industry) of the APO in its fifty-six-year history. This was a record service tenure. All the member countries were highly appreciative of her services as well as of the interpersonal relationships she maintained with all NPOs of the MCs. She developed and enhanced the Public-sector Productivity, Policy framework, and Programs of the APO.

She holds a B.Sc. (SriJ), PGDIT (SLIIT), MPA (SriJ), and has many international and national experiences in the Productivity Promotion Movement. Mrs. Jayasundara has specialized in the areas of Project Management, Productivity Promotion, Public Policy/Administration, General Management, Human Resource Management, Planning and Monitoring, Strategic Management, Leadership, Knowledge Management, Lean Management, Green Productivity, Public Sector Performance Measurement and Management, Service Innovation and Human Centered Productivity etc.