Hans Wijayasuriya


Shridhir Sariputta Hansa Wijayasuriya, a Sri Lankan telecommunications business executive, is the regional CEO for the South Asian Region of the Axiata Group Bhd., Asia’s second largest telecommunications company. Until 2016, he was also the group chief executive of Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s largest mobile communications provider. During the period 2012-14, He was founder CEO of Axiata Digital Services, the pan-region Digital Services arm of the Axiata Group.
In June 2016, the GSM Association, gave him an award. Hans was also named ‘Sri Lankan of the Year’ in 2008, by a local business journal, LMD.

Early life and education

Born to P. M. W. Wijayasuriya, a former Auditor General of Sri Lanka and Susila Wijayasuriya - a painter, Hans was educated at S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka. He graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1989 with a Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He later obtained his PhD in Digital Mobile Communications from the University of Bristol in 1994. A Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology UK, Wijayasuriya also holds an MBA from the University of Warwick UK. He is a g-g-grandson of Sir Charles Henry de Soysa.

Career

Hans joined Dialog Axiata, the fourth entrant to Sri Lanka’s mobile market as a member of the founding management team in 1994. He became chief executive in 1997. Dialog is today one of Asia’s most advanced Quad Play connectivity and Digital Services providers.
Hans serves as a director of several Axiata Group Companies in the region and is also a member of the board of directors of John Keells Holdings PLC., Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Hans is a past Chairman of GSM Asia-Pacific – the Regional interest group of the GSM Association, and has been included in the GSM 100 Role of Honour for his contribution to the Asia-Pacific Telecommunication industry. A past Chairman of the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies, Hans has also served on the Boards of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology.
Hans has published on the subject of digital mobile communications, including research papers in publications of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers USA, Royal Society and the Institute of Electrical Engineers UK. He has also presented papers at several International conferences on digital mobile communications.