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Upul Dharmadasa, Former Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) Assumed duties as the Chairman of Hotel Developers.
A graduate of the Ceylon Hotels School and a former officer of Air Ceylon, Dharmadasa ended up operating the largest Sri Lankan overseas travel service Upul’s Travel Service, based in Los Angeles. Utravel.com, a state-of-the-art booking system he developed to serve the approximately 750,000 Sri Lankans living in the USA and 400.000 in Canada, is now operated around the world as a Global Travel booking engine.
Dharmadasa is 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 Food Service Industry and management training at North Dakota University and worked as an in-house hospital dietitian before starting his Upul’s Travel Service. He is currently completing his MBA (UK)
Once he began his travel career in the USA, he was trained in Dallas FT worth by American Airlines. He is among the 5% of the travel professionals in the USA who bear the designation of CTC (Certified Travel Counsellor), the program offered by the Institute of Certified Travel Agents in Wellesley, Massachusetts, for travel professionals who completed a comprehensive travel program.
After several decades, Upul returned home to take over as the Chairman Sri Lanka Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka. During the three years, he served in that capacity, he made a significant contribution to Sri Lanka’s aviation sector, guiding it with his usual hands-on involvement through the trying three-year period of the Covid pandemic when he was a member of the Presidential Task Force and facilitated numerous last minute changes requested by airlines.
Particularly noteworthy is his service to the staff welfare during his tenure. On relinquishing his duties at the end of his assignment, the staff acknowledged his singular contribution by displaying his bold leadership in the Board of Directors to provide a substantial increase in the cost-of-living allowance to compensate for the difficulties they faced by them in the aftermath of the pandemic. At the time of his leaving, in January this year, he had initiated a fund-raising effort for the staff welfare committee that had not received ministry approval.
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 he considered to be the silent contributors to the organization’s success. 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 – no mean achievement indeed!
At the time of his departure, The Manager of Etihad Airways, Roshani Masakorala, President of Sri Lanka Airlines Association (SLAA) paid tribute, “It was easy to work with Mr. Dharmadasa because he knew the industry well and had decades of experience with academic qualifications and training in the field, and his departure from CAA is a loss to the local airline industry.”
It is expected that he will carry with him his hands-on empathetic management style to his new assignment as Chairman of the Chairman Hotel Developers (Lanka) PLC.
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