Rohan Fernando

Mr. Fernando joined Brooke Bond Ceylon Limited and served as a Manager in the Tea Department from 1979 to 1989 with a secondment of one year as a Tea Trader, at its headquarters in the United Kingdom in 1982.

In 1990, he established HVA Lanka Exports as a joint venture with the Dutch agricultural conglomerate HVA Holdings bv and expanded the organisation to include several subsidiary companies, HVA Foods PLC., HVA Beverages & HVA Holdings. He is also the Chairman and CEO of the HVA Group and Chairman of HVA Farms (Pvt) Ltd., an organic agro-resort in the NWP.

He served on the Colombo Tea Traders Association as a member and also as a Director on the Sri Lanka Tea Board and as an Independent Director of the Sri Lanka Industrial Technology Institute from 2015 to 2016.

Mr. Fernando functioned as the President of the National Chamber of Exporters in 2008 and 2009. He served as the elected Chairman of the Tea Exporters Association of Sri Lanka from 2014 to 2016. He is a National award winner since 1997 at the NCE Exports Awards and was selected “Exporter of the Year” winning Gold awards in 4 categories, in 1999. Rohan was also awarded “Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the year 2015,” winning the National Gold award and “Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the year 2015,” with a Provincial Gold award.

He is a multi-disciplined sportsman at school and represented and captained Sri Lanka at Rowing. He currently heads the Sri Lanka Amateur Rowing Association and is also a senior member of the National Olympic Committee.