Speaker

A sustainability practitioner throughout her career Amanthi has been working in this field since 1999, and her work experience is in varied sectors of Sri Lanka including the NGO, Government and the Private Sector. Amanthi currently holds the post of Deputy General Manager – Strategic Sustainability at MAS. She heads Social Sustainability for the Group and has been in the core team involved with the formulation of sustainability strategy at MAS Holdings. She is also currently is the point person for the United Nations Global Compact for MAS Holdings. She began her career at MAS in 2007 giving leadership to the Eco Go Beyond Programme – which is community outreach programme on Sustainable Development Education for youth of rural Sri Lanka Amanthi has represented MAS Holdings at many national and international forums including those organized by UNESCO, the United Nations Global Compact, the European Consumer Citizenship Network and the Government of Sri Lanka. These have been in the capacity of presenter, panelist and judge. She was the keynote speaker at the 11th Management International Conference - Social Responsibility, Professional Ethics, and Management conducted by Hacettepe University held in Ankara in 2010. In 2017 she was invited by the Waste Management Authority of the Western Provincial Council to the judging panel of the inaugural Mihisaru Awards to recognize Government agencies and private companies for their initiatives in waste management in the Western Province. A firm believer in education for change, she has been a visiting lecturer on sustainable development at many post graduate and professional programmes and has also contributed to developing curriculum on environmental sustainability. She has training in Sustainability related fields such as, Sustainability Reporting, GRI, embedding Sustainable Development and Business, Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001), Business and Human Rights and the Global Compact. Amanthi’s past involvement in the field of environment has seen her work on the Climate Change Enabling Activity Project (Phase II) which was funded by the UNDP and conducted by the Global Affairs Division of the Ministry of Environment. She was also the Editor and Publications Officer of the Environmental Foundation Limited for 3 years. Amanthi has a Masters in Environmental Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi India and obtained her Bachelor of Science from the Open University of Sri Lanka. She lives and works in Colombo, with her husband, son and daughter.