For more than two decades, he has worked in sales and marketing, but his career has never been just about selling products or building brands. It has always been about understanding people, spotting what matters to them, and turning that understanding into ideas that can make a difference.

Today, he is the Managing Partner at dentsu grant group, where he works across the group’s businesses, bringing creative, media, digital, PR and other disciplines together to solve business problems and drive growth. It is a role that brings together much of what his career has been about: strategy, creativity, people and making different parts of a business work better together.

Before joining dentsu grant group, he was A/Director of Digital Strategy at GroupM Sri Lanka and Head of Digital for Team Unilever and Mindshare Sri Lanka. The work he has led has earned more than 160 industry awards, including eleven Effie Golds, a record that remains unmatched in Sri Lanka. His teams have also brought home two of the country’s most prestigious global marketing awards.

But awards are only one part of the story.

He has spent much of his career trying to make the industry better, not just winning in it. He has served on international juries including MAD Stars, The Drum Awards, Cresta, Effies, New York Festivals Advertising Awards, SmartiesX and WINA. He is also an instructor at Miami Ad School, where, over seven years, he has shared his experience with more than 6,500 students and business owners through lectures on digital marketing.

He has also never been particularly good at keeping his interests in neat little boxes.

From 2019 to 2023, he served as Program Director of the Underground Metal Circle, helping promote Sri Lanka’s underground metal and alternative music scene. What started as a love for music became another creative playground. He worked with emerging bands, promoted shows and helped build a community around musicians who were creating simply because they had something to say.

That connection to music goes much further back. He is a lifelong collector with more than 6,300 CDs, a collection believed to be the largest private music library in Sri Lanka.

Perhaps that explains the unusual mix that defines his career. Advertising, digital, music, culture, teaching and community building may look like separate worlds. For him, they are connected by the same thing: curiosity about people and what makes them care.

His career is therefore more than a list of titles, awards and numbers. It is a story of moving between business and creativity, mainstream advertising and underground music, boardrooms and classrooms, while continuing to look for new ways to make ideas matter.