Hans Wijayasuriya

In his capacity as the Regional CEO for South Asia, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya heads the South Asian Operations of the Axiata Group Bhd., spanning Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and India. Axiata is Asia’s second largest Telecommunications Group. Up to and including the year 2016, he additionally functioned as the Group Chief Executive of Dialog Axiata PLC (Dialog). Over the course of his tenure of leadership spanning close to two decades, Dialog progressed from being the 4th entrant to Sri Lanka’s mobile market to become the country’s leading multi-play connectivity provider, and one of the highest valued companies on the Colombo Stock Exchange. In the Year 2016, he was honoured by the GSM Association as the first recipient of the 'Outstanding Contribution to the Asian Mobile Industry' Award. Dr. Wijayasuriya is a past Chairman of GSM Asia Pacific – the regional interest group of the GSM Association, and also serves on the Board of the TM Forum (TMF). Dr Wijayasuriya was also named ‘Sri Lankan of the Year’ by Sri Lanka’s premier business journal, LMD in 2008. Dr. Wijayasuriya is currently the Vice Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Sri Lanka’s premier business chamber. During the Period 2012-14, Dr. Wijayasuriya also functioned as the founding CEO of Axiata Digital Services – the Group-wide Digital Services Business of the Axiata Group. Dr. Wijayasuriya serves on the boards of several regional operating companies of the Axiata Group, and also on the boards of Axiata Digital Services and several of its Digital Ventures.

Dr. Wijayasuriya graduated from the University of Cambridge UK in 1989. He subsequently obtained his PhD in Digital Mobile Communications from the University of Bristol UK in 1994. A Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Engineering Technology UK, Dr. Wijayasuriya also holds an MBA from the University of Warwick UK. Dr. Wijayasuriya has published widely on the subject of digital mobile communications, including research papers in publications of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) USA, Royal Society and the Institute of Engineering Technology (IET) UK.