Sulochana Segera
Managing Director, Institute of Women in Management
Sri Lanka
The Global Banking & Finance Awards® UK announced Dr. Sulochana Segera as the winner of ‘Business Woman of the Year Sri Lanka’. 2020 marks the first time a Sri Lankan female entrepreneur has been recognized as a winner of the Awarded and listed on the Global Banking & Finance Review website. Dr. Segera was listed as one of the ten most Influential People in Sri Lanka 2020 by the LNW website.
One of Sri Lanka’s top social entrepreneurs, trainers and motivational speakers with over 24 years of experience, Dr Segera is the Chairperson of the global brand Women in Management (WIM). The umbrella brand is mother to projects like ‘Professional Career Woman Awards’ and the ‘WIM Single Mother’ which has been instrumental in changing the national mindset towards recognizing, celebrating and motivating female entrepreneurship.
She is mostly known in the industry as a corporate trainer for multinationals with a passion towards rural and urban upliftment of standards of living, education and skill development. Her personal trajectory is very much linked to the growth of the brand WIM which started as a female empowerment initiative and gradually progressed into a global platform.
In the arena of MSME and SME sector Dr.Sulochana Segera is considered a mentor, counsellor and an investor of good will, as she most often becomes the one to travel to rural areas and discovers what she calls “diamonds in the rough”. Her efforts have encouraged boards to follow a more inclusive leadership in their top tier management structures. She claims that all recipients of the Wim Top50 award in Sri Lanka are inspirational and astute corporate leaders who have endured many challenges and continue to be examples to so many in their roles as leaders with a work-life balance.
She is a certified on IFC-LPI Trainer Performance Monitoring & Assessment TPMA) and Trainer on IFC-LPI TPMA. A certified Personality Development Trainer in Asia, Dr.Segera is a trainer for the World Bank entity IFC on the area ‘Sustainable Private Sector Investment’ whilst in the private sector for the top Global multinational- Coca Cola the official trainer for the brand ‘5 by 20’ which is an initiative for the development of 5 million women by way of empowerment and Economic Development. She is also a trainer for British Council ‘Active Citizen’ project.
She is the Patron of the T.E.A Project, (UK Based Project in Sri Lanka empowering Children) and she also sits in the Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Skill Development, Employment and Labour Relations. She launched the First Sri Lankan Inspirational Women Calendar for year 2022 featuring 12 women leaders representing business, politics, careers, professions, social activities etc.,
She also initiated the Free Kitchen to feed homeless and low-income people in the Colombo district. Per day her kitchen feed approximately 100 people every day. With the recently economical crisis she has taken the leadership to feed children in school who are coming from low-income families. Under WIM Single mother project every year 100 children of women headed households receive education scholarships to continue their studies.
Dr. Segera was recently appointed to the Advisory Committee of the Global Global Equality Standard developed by GEA in United Kingdom. She also heads the Sri Lankan project of Her Majesty the Queen’s
seventy years of service and leadership, the British Council will build a network of 100 young women leaders in five countries of South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) and the UK.
Dr. Sulochana Segera was awarded as the winner of ‘Business Woman of the Year Sri Lanka’. 2020 The Global Banking & Finance Awards® UK. the first time a Sri Lankan female entrepreneur has been recognized as a winner of the Awarded and listed on the Global Banking & Finance Review website. She has been recognized globally, winning the “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” award in 2019 at the Asia Pacific Awards organised by the Global Entrepreneur Council, the Global CSR Excellence Award 2018, Women Super Achievement Award 2017, Leadership Excellence Award 2016 and the “Most Outstanding Professional” award.